This is bird note.

Ah, the sweet music of gals.

Okay, we have to admit it. For some of us, it's just hard to get excited about gals.

But in their own way, gals are as fascinating and have as much to tell us as other birds.

Take the herring gulf, for example.

Along the Atlantic coast of North America, the nesting population of herring gals numbers

in the hundreds of thousands, abundant, yes, and striking an appearance.

Adults have pale grey backs and wings, pink legs, and wing tips, neatly tipped in black.

They stare back at you with piercing pale yellow eyes.

We take their abundance for granted, but as recently as 1900, feather and egg hunters

had wiped out virtually all nesting herring gals south of Maine, where only about 8,000 pairs remained.

Conservation laws have enabled the gals to recover, but even now, herring gals remain vulnerable

to ecological damage and changes. Overfishing and closure of landfills reduces food supply,

and because they're at the top of the aquatic food chain, their diet concentrates chemical pollutants,

such as dioxins. So the next time you see a herring gulf, take a careful look,

and listen to that unforgettable voice.

For Bird Oak, I'm Mary McCann.