Nature on our doorsteps: Dancing seagulls?

Rosaleen Dwyer is the County Heritage Officer at South Dublin County Council – every week she gives us an insight into nature on our doorsteps and the beautiful biodiversity of its plants and wildlife.

WHILE seagulls are mainly a bird of coastal areas, they are often seen inland.

This allows us to observe their behaviour as they scavenge on left-over food discarded by people in our streets, parks, and housing estates.

In the wild, some seagulls like Herring Gulls will also feed on more natural food like worms and other creatures that live in the soil.

These gulls have a fascinating worm-hunting technique which makes it look like the birds are dancing in the grass.

They begin by quickly tapping or stamping their webbed feet on the ground.

Then they step to one side and begin stamping again, sometimes moving around in a small area as they continue.

While this unusual behaviour has been referred to as ‘worm-dancing’ or ‘worm-charming’, the bird is actually drawing worms up to the surface of the soil where it can more easily catch and eat them.

The bird’s stamping action sends vibrations down through the ground. One theory proposes that to the worms in the soil below, these vibrations sound like raindrops and they respond by coming up to the surface.

Worms often respond to wet weather by coming up to the surface.

As rainwater filters down into the ground and fills the small air spaces in the soil, creatures often come to the surface to breathe more easily.

Some worms may also take advantage of the wet slippery ground to move around and find new feeding grounds.

The worm’s response to the vibrations may also simply be an effort to escape an unusual noise.

Rooks and Jackdaws sometimes join the gulls in the feast, but they tend not to dance.

Because their pointed beaks can penetrate the soil much easier than the gull’s more hooked tip, they are simply benefiting from the gull’s hard work by picking off any worms that the gulls may have missed as they dance around.