Voyage from Liverpool to Boston - Off south coast of Ireland.
1911.
August 2
(No 12)
[August 2, 1911]

Remarkable flight of Herring Gulls.
The Gulls begin to leave us before sunset and are all gone before dark

readjust, instantly and by what may be termed intuitive volition, the
"set" of its wings and that of certain of their feathers as well, perhaps,
as its general equilibrium. Such readjustments were constantly seen
by us and easily noted although less marked than one might
have expected. The birds also seemed to use their tails to some
extent as rudders but they did not ever open or spread them
at all widely. Before sunset they began to leave us one by
one and before dark all had disapeared. There were no
Gulls of any kind in sight during the following day. Thus
they did not follow us quite out of sight of the shores of
Ireland where no doubt many of them had nests and young.
Practically all of those following the steamer after we came out
of Queenstown Harbor were fully mature birds still in
breeding plumage but in or very near this harbor we saw
two or three dark plumaged birds which we thought must
have been hatched & reared this summer.