This is bird note.

The loud bugling call of gulls is unmistakable.

What of nature's most familiar voices?

Can't you... What of nature's most familiar voices?

Can't you just smell the salt air of the sea shore where no ocean view would be complete without a few gulls flying by. Gulls seem so much a part of the sea that we often just call them

sea gulls, a colloquial title for these graceful ubiquitous creatures.

Although a fixture on many beaches... these graceful, ubiquitous creatures.

Although a fixture on many beaches, most gulls aren't truly seafaring birds.

Most never venture far from the shoreline.

What gulls prefer overall are open areas like beaches, lakes, ball fields,

and pastures, not to mention landfills. In May, most gulls are nesting.

22 species breed in North America.

Some nest inland, some along coastlines. The familiar ring-billed gull nests all across northern

states and Canadian provinces. Herring gulls breed by the millions along the Great Lakes and northeast waterways,

while laughing gulls nest all along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

The Pacific coast is home to vast numbers of aptly named Western Gauls.

Whether you call them Gauls or sea Gauls, just remember that a movie scene of a ship far out at sea surrounded by braying gulls

was likely filmed just off the beach.

For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann.