A few birds from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
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Glaucous-winged Gull:Glaucous-winged Gull Naruyaq Although this is the same gull that those who live in coastal villages on the L-K Delta will probably see scavenging in your dumps, it is also one of those birds that is the stuff of legend. When I was a teacher in Hooper Bay back in the early 1980’s an elder told my students a story about the gull. It went like this: “One time our great grandfather, whose name was Qillerravialeq, was lost out in the ocean. He got confused and thought he was paddling toward the land. There was a lot of ice in the ocean. He was paddling all afternoon until he came to another kayak, and that kayak was at the edge of the ice. He was glad to see a person out in the sea, and he paddled toward him. The person was only a young man, just then growing a mustache. He was sitting inside his kayak. My great grandfather had never seen this young man before. And right behind his kayak he saw some smoke and a cooking pot. When he got out of his kayak the young man asked him why he was paddling around here and told him that he wasn’t going toward the land but in the wrong direction. Then my great grandfather asked him if he had a dipper. Men always carried a dipper with them when they went out in their kayaks. They wore a seal gut raincoat tied around the rim of the kayak and if the water got heavy around their waist they would use the wooden dipper to dip the water out of their raincoat. The young man gave him his dipper and told him to go to the pot and drink some soup. When my great grandfather went up to the boiling pot he saw only one tomcod in it. It was already cooked so he dipped some soup out and drank it. He dipped into the pot again and it tasted really good. Then the young man told my great grandfather to go in a certain direction so that he would head for land. When great grandfather got into his kayak the young told him, “Now go straight toward the land until you reach your destination. A long time ago when I was small you used to really care for me well and now I care for you by letting you drink some of my soup. You might think I’m lying, so paddle for a short distance and then look back at me.” When grandfather left he was relieved from hunger and felt stronger paddling. Then he looked back as he had been told, but all he saw was a seagull standing at the edge of the ice calling at him, and this made him think: That seagull is the young man who let me drink some of his soup and didn’t let me starve. He cared for me out here in the ocean. But when did I care for him, he asked himself? He finally remembered that when he was young he had a pet baby seagull and never let him go hungry, and when the seagull could fly he freed him. That happened a long time ago when he was young, and he was surprised that his own pet had appeared to him like this out here in the ocean. Then he started on his journey again, and after long hours of paddling he finally reached the land, relieved and glad to be home.” Naruyaq was a hero for this elder, and his story was remembered through the generations. It is perhaps also one of the reasons why this famous bird is the most numerous of all the four species of gulls in the L-K Delta. But let me tell you a little more about them. Although you will probably see them scavenging for food at your dump, they also help the ravens and other birds clean up the remains of dead animals in the ocean and on the beaches. They are large gulls and can be aggressive when hungry with sea ducks such as eiders in harassing them to the point they give up their food. They are also smart, and will catch barnacles, shellfish (mollusks), and sea urchins from near shore, then drop them on rocks from high in the air to crack them open. They may have figured this strategy out from ravens who do the same thing. Another part of their diet is small animals, baby birds and eggs. Naruyaq may stick around the coasts of the Delta all year, especially nowadays with Climate Change when there is much less sea ice. Even if they move south during the winter months, though, they usually return in the spring to nest in the same large breeding colonies on the ledges of rocky promontories like Cape Romanzof and low flat islands above the high tide line. They are gregarious birds at that time and often pair up again with the same mate they had the previous year. Like ravens also, they usually breed for the first time during their 4th year. After a brief courting period, both sexes help build their nest, which is a shallow scrape lined with grass, seaweed, moss and whatever other soft debris they find. They might begin to build several nests, but only complete one. An average of three blotchy yellowish-green eggs are laid, although the third egg is smaller than the other two. Both mother and father birds also incubate the eggs for 26-29 days when their downy chicks hatch, then leave the nest just two days later. But the young remain in the area, and are fed by both parents right up to when they take their first flight between 37-53 days after hatching. They catch on fast after that, though, and about two weeks later feel confident enough to leave the colony. If they were captured and cared for, then freed by a youth like the one in the legend, they might even help guide him back to shore if he strayed in the wrong direction in his boat. Could this power be why shamen sometimes incorporated them in their ceremonial masks? For the record, the scientific name of Naruyaq is Larus glaucescens, which is Latin and Greek for, “a bluish-gray seabird that has a fierce appetite.” Birds have been around far longer than we humans have, and so have deep roots in our human experience. Naruyaq is one of these.  |
