Uploaded October 2011 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
An educational and entertaining video. After a year of photographing gales on Lake Michigan, I noticed that gulls always are flying near piers in the nastiest gales. Lots of gulls. What are they doing? Riding the updraft? Probably, but why? To feed on fish thrown from the water? Possibly, but I never had evidence. Now I have some. While photographing and taping a recent gale in South Haven Michigan, a bystander pointed out that a fish had been tossed up on the pier, apparently by a wave. I took some video of the flopping fish with gulls looking on. The man then walked out on the pier and nudged the fish back into the water (much to the gull's disappointment - but to fisherman's delight). My still photos and videos demonstrate the violent and chaotic nature of the waves hitting the pier, which is further evidence that the large brown trout was thrown up onto the pier by a wave, not dropped by a bird.
I have combined this media (with some music I wrote) into a short video to illustrate this experience. Comments on similar observations are especially welcome!
An educational and entertaining video. After a year of photographing gales on Lake Michigan, I noticed that gulls always are flying near piers in the nastiest gales. Lots of gulls. What are they doing? Riding the updraft? Probably, but why? To feed on fish thrown from the water? Possibly, but I never had evidence. Now I have some. While photographing and taping a recent gale in South Haven Michigan, a bystander pointed out that a fish had been tossed up on the pier, apparently by a wave. I took some video of the flopping fish with gulls looking on. The man then walked out on the pier and nudged the fish back into the water (much to the gull's disappointment - but to fisherman's delight). My still photos and videos demonstrate the violent and chaotic nature of the waves hitting the pier, which is further evidence that the large brown trout was thrown up onto the pier by a wave, not dropped by a bird.
I have combined this media (with some music I wrote) into a short video to illustrate this experience. Comments on similar observations are especially welcome!
