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California gulls look much like typical seagulls, but although they winter along the western coast, they breed inland, often on austere salt lakes. One of the largest colonies is at Mono Lake, in the eastern Sierra Nevada of California, where I took these pictures. The lake has several isolated breeding islands protected from predators (although these were threatened by water diversions to the city of Los Angeles until environmentalists won court-ordered protection of a stable lake level). It also offers two food sources: brine shrimp in the water, and brine (or alkali) flies along the shore, and some freshwater springs the gulls use for bathing (as in some of these images). Other photos show winter-plumage adult California gulls at Mono Lake and on beaches in southern California. |
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