![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/sandhill-crane-3879-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA minor mystery but still a mystery to me.<\/p>\n
On previous trips to Montana’s Centennial Valley I’ve witnessed several feeding frenzies in wet meadows by large numbers of Franklin’s Gulls but I could never figure out what they were eating. I presumed it was some kind of insect but I had no idea what it was.<\/p>\n
Yesterday morning, in another wet meadow in the valley, it happened again. This time the feeding frenzy involved four species of birds and I was able to determine what they were eating.<\/p>\n
It wasn’t an insect.<\/p>\n
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When I first approached the conglomeration of birds in the meadow I focused on the most obvious birds there – a pair of Sandhill Cranes. But the other smaller birds were feeding so aggressively and noisily I couldn’t ignore them.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/mixed-species-feeding-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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The four species involved in the frenzy were Sandhill Cranes, Long-billed Curlews, a few California Gulls and many hundreds of ravenous Franklin’s Gulls. The birds were spread out over the meadow that this old Montana farm boy estimated was a little larger than one acre.<\/p>\n
Most of the time I was focusing on individual birds but here we see three of the four species, minus the relatively few California Gulls. They were all feeding in the same manner by picking the food item, whatever it was, from the base of the grasses. Even the cranes weren’t probing the ground with their bills, instead they were picking food up from the ground’s surface<\/p>\n
It wasn’t until I got back to my camping trailer that I realized that I had photo evidence of what they were all eating.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/franklins-gull-3931.jpg\")
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They were eating worms, not insects.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/franklins-gull-3931-large-crop-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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Earthworms to be precise. When cropped a lot, this photo isn’t very sharp but it confirms what they were eating.<\/p>\n
This doesn’t prove that the feeding frenzies I’d observed in the past involved earthworms but I think it strongly suggests as much. And if I’m right, another little mystery in the Centennial is solved.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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A minor mystery but still a mystery to me ( 4 photos)<\/p>\n