The Early Bird

You know how the saying goes – “the early bird gets the worm”, well this early bird got the crayfish!  I went out early this morning to take advantage of the good light and got this Ring-billed Gull tearing apart a crayfish on the beach of Lake Havasu.  Perhaps more importantly, I learned something.  Evidently the gulls do not spend the night on the beach.  During the day I always see around forty gulls in two groups along the beach in front of the campground. This morning, this was the only gull I could find.  My guess is that they spend the night at secure locations, perhaps some docks or roofs away from the beach where they could certainly be vulnerable to predators in the night.