Death of the Cockle

Gulls feed on just about anything they can find........that's why they frequent dumps so often.  On the beaches of Puget Sound they can be found with sea stars, worms, sea urchins, crabs, clams, mussels, fish and just about anything else they can swallow.  Cockles are sturdy shelled clams that only bury themselves a few centimeters in the sand.  Gulls can see the siphons sticking up at the surface and dig them up quickly.  Once caught it's a matter of getting the cockle open by dropping it from flight until it finally breaks and is open for consumption.  While gulls don't usually share they will sometimes if it happens to be one of their offspring begging.  In the series of images below an adult gull captures a cockle, drops it till it breaks and then shares it with a juvenile gull which may be its offspring.....sharing with the crow...no way.