To the editor:
After reading articles by Carol Thompson and Wing Goodale (WWF June 04) about coloring of seagulls, here is my 1936-1937 story involving the same.
Joel Marsh, Karl Jacobson and I were the first three wildlife students at the University of Maine led by Professors Aldous and Swanson who were wildlife professors at the University of Minnesota. The University of Maine asked them to head their new program.
Most of our field work consisted of deer studies with an occasional beaver episode. This changed when Professor Aldous was asked by a colleague if he believed that parasites of sea fish were the same species as found in lakes and ponds fish.
Reluctantly our leaders said that we could work on this but there was to be absolutely no publicity. Briefly, we planned to trap seagulls, dye their tails and ask inland game wardens to watch for our dyed birds. We could just prove a possibility.
We worked one whole morning handling the gulls and staining their tails. The noise did attract flying birds and human watchers. Then to shore to release the birds. When our six birds were released, every gull in the vicinity started screeching and converging on them. Soon the group, with six leaders, were out of site and sound.
Maybe gulls with a light pink coloring can exist but there must be a limit. We discovered years ago, to our chagrin, that deep unnatural coloration means a gull fatality.
Edward Spalding
South Harpswell, ME