You ever watch a seagull at a shore flying in extremely gusty wind? They don’t get credit for being the incredible flyers they are.
In a cold whipping New England winter wind that abruptly switches directions seagulls manage to gracefully hover over the shoreline, smoothing out all that chaotic energy to methodically comb through the shore wrack from 50 feet in the air.
When was the last time you actually looked carefully at a seagull wing? It’s just funny to me, seagulls have this identity as the rats of sky but their bodies are basically designed like high speed luxury cars. They might not be the fastest bird, they might not be able to do crazy dives (well they usually don’t anyways), but in terms of high speed handling in challenging conditions they are superbly designed in a way most other birds can’t even remotely compete with.
This flight position with the wing “elbows” bent back like this is obviously exploiting a similar thing to swept wing designs in aircraft. Bending their wings like this allows transitioning in a blink of an eye from an extremely high glide straight wing geometry for soaring or arresting a drop from a lull in wind to an extremely aerodynamic high speed wing tuck. Other birds can do either of these things, and adopt similar high speed tucks (especially in dives) but seagulls and other related seabirds are just so incredibly good at using their ability to radically change their wing geometry in split second reactions to create stability out of chaos. It is one thing to be able to soar like a vulture, but to also be able to acrobatically fly in gusty winds around sheer rock cliffs is no small feat even though it is a common sight for many people.
One time the Canada day fireworks were cancelled because it was too windy, so instead I just watched the seagulls. I swear they were playing in the wind, a bunch were going around a loop, catching the wind and getting carried up over a hill, then looping back around and gliding back to the bottom of the hill to go again. It looked like fun.
You ever watch a seagull at a shore flying in extremely gusty wind? They don’t get credit for being the incredible flyers they are.
In a cold whipping New England winter wind that abruptly switches directions seagulls manage to gracefully hover over the shoreline, smoothing out all that chaotic energy to methodically comb through the shore wrack from 50 feet in the air.
When was the last time you actually looked carefully at a seagull wing? It’s just funny to me, seagulls have this identity as the rats of sky but their bodies are basically designed like high speed luxury cars. They might not be the fastest bird, they might not be able to do crazy dives (well they usually don’t anyways), but in terms of high speed handling in challenging conditions they are superbly designed in a way most other birds can’t even remotely compete with.
Check out this video with slow motion shots of seagulls achieving a stable hover in super gusty winds
This flight position with the wing “elbows” bent back like this is obviously exploiting a similar thing to swept wing designs in aircraft. Bending their wings like this allows transitioning in a blink of an eye from an extremely high glide straight wing geometry for soaring or arresting a drop from a lull in wind to an extremely aerodynamic high speed wing tuck. Other birds can do either of these things, and adopt similar high speed tucks (especially in dives) but seagulls and other related seabirds are just so incredibly good at using their ability to radically change their wing geometry in split second reactions to create stability out of chaos. It is one thing to be able to soar like a vulture, but to also be able to acrobatically fly in gusty winds around sheer rock cliffs is no small feat even though it is a common sight for many people.
One time the Canada day fireworks were cancelled because it was too windy, so instead I just watched the seagulls. I swear they were playing in the wind, a bunch were going around a loop, catching the wind and getting carried up over a hill, then looping back around and gliding back to the bottom of the hill to go again. It looked like fun.
They were so loud at the beach when I lived in northern Ontario that I could hear them from blocks away.
They’re very sleek looking for sure. That’s all very interesting. I will learn more of the seagull.