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Billy Grip was not his real
name, of course, and all of this
happened many years ago.
BILLY GRIP
by
Russell E. Spooner
Billy was a seagull, born in a nest high in a tree seven miles from the ocean. Three times each day, his parents went back and forth to bring him food from along the shore.
When Billy had grown his feathers, and was nearly big enough to fly, his mother and father noticed that he was not all white, as most of the seagulls in that area were. The ends of Billy's wings were gray, as was the tip of his tail. Some seagulls are gray, of course, but it was rare, in that time and place, that one was both colors. So they called him Billy Gray Tip, and thought that he was very special.
When Billy Gray Tip could fly quite well, he went to the seashore for the first time. There, he learned to find the things that seagulls like to eat. He found clams, and small fish, and mussels. He like mussels best, maybe because there were so many of them. At low tide, they clung to the rocks by the thousands.
It was not easy to pry them off the rocks, but Billy became quite good at doing this. His bill and feet were very strong. That's why his friends began to call him Billy Grip, instead of his real name.
But getting mussels off a rock, and breaking them apart so they can be eaten, are two different things. Billy would hold his mussel in his strong feet and peck and peck with his strong bill until, finally, he cracked the mussel's shell and was able to open it and eat what was inside. But he thought that this was really a lot of hard work, just for one small bite of his favorite food.
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Billy liked to play games, when he was not too busy finding food to eat. His gray-tipped wings were just as strong as his bill and feet, and he could quickly fly to high above the rocky shore. One day, just because there was nothing better to do, he carried a small rock with him when he flew.
He found a "thermal" current, which is a wind that blows up and down where land and water meet. Gulls do this, and can "ride" a thermal up-current for a long time, with hardly any motion of their wings. Billy did just that, soaring along over the shore, until he came to a place where there was a very large stone, almost as big as a house. He dipped and rose in the air, he turned this way and that, until he was right over this stone. Then he dropped the rock he carried.
The rock fell, and landed right on the large stone. Billy had made a "bulls-eye," and thought this was great fun. He did it again and again, until he hardly ever missed. Other gulls saw what he did, but thought Billy Grip had lost his mind, and was doing something too foolish to mention. When they were not eating, or looking for food, they just sat on a rock, or post, or whatever they could find, and waited until they became hungry enough to search for more food.
A day came when Billy was working very hard to break open a mussel. He thought about it, and knew there was an easier way. He held the mussel in his bill, and flew to the place above the large stone where he had played his "drop the rock' game. This time, instead of a rock, he dropped the mussel. Then he dove down and landed right next to it. Just as he had thought, the shell was broken, and he could eat the mussel with ease.
So, he did this with all the mussels he found which had shells that were hard to open. Other gulls saw what he did. Some of them came to the large stone and tried to steal Billy's mussels after he dropped them. But remember, Billy had strong wings, a strong bill, and strong feet. He taught those thieves a few lessons about leaving his food alone.
Billy was not hungry very often after that, and in time he found a mate and had gull children of his own. He taught them the game of dropping rocks for practice, then breaking mussels for food.
As you know, this happened a long time ago. But today, if you go to a place at the seashore where there are seagulls, mussels, and large stones, you might see a gull dropping mussels on one of those stones to break the shells. If the gull is white, with gray-tipped wings and tail, it just might be a great-great-grandchild of Billy Grip.
The End
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