Gull egg

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Three taupe-colored, brown-speckled eggs in a bird's nest made of dried grass
A clutch of three potentially edible gull eggs, photographed 2016 in Norway

Gull eggs, gathered in spring from the nests of wild

size of chicken egg; for example, a herring-gull egg typically weighs about 85 g (3.0 oz).[4][a] One source states that a generalized gull's egg is approximately twice the size of a chicken's egg.[5]

Egging is the prehistoric practice of

bioindicators of environmental pollution".[19] Toxicologists and public-health agencies recommend that children and pregnant or nursing women avoid eating gull eggs.[20]

Increased egg production by domestic poultry and wild egging have often filled the hungry gap of early spring.[1] In baking, gull eggs are said to increase the airiness of cakes (compared to chicken eggs used in the same way),[21] and to make a "smashing meringue".[5] In some human communities with large populations of fisherfolk, the relationship between egging human and nesting gulls may be considered to be mutualistic, in that humans nourish the gull population with a steady supply of fish guts in exchange for access to occasional or seasonal eggs.[18]

Europe

British Isles

Gull eggs have long been collected in some quantity in the British Isles and are considered to be a seasonal delicacy in Great Britain.[22][23][24] Wild seabird eggs were once taken all along the English Channel.[25] Gull eggs were sometimes used to supplement domestic chicken flocks (Gallus gallus domesticus): when broody hens were determined to incubate and hatch their own eggs—which would eventually allow for the perpetuation of the flock if a cock had recently been present—householders could instead collect wild gulls' eggs.[10] British farmers would also harvest gull eggs to both reduce the populations of gulls they considered pestilential and for use as nitrogen and calcium-rich fertilizer for their fields.[10] One account has it that in primeval times, the first clutches were all smashed in a day, prompting the gull colony to lay again en masse, so that harvesters could return within a week and be guaranteed of fresh eggs.[6] According to a 1906 account, after gull nesting began in March, the first two clutches laid in the fens and salt marshes of England were taken for consumption or sale, and the third clutch was left untouched for the gull hen to set, "elsewise she and her kind would never set foot in the marsh again."[26] In May 1912, two young men in Fife, Scotland, were charged with illegally possessing seven eider duck (genus Somateria) eggs, in violation of the 1880 Wild Birds' Protection Order (43 & 44 Vict. c. 35). The men also had, at the time of their arrest, perfectly legal possession of 654 gull eggs.[27] Two decades later a letter to a Scottish newspaper described gull egging on a loch; eggs were "lifted from their dangerously placed nests by means of a table spoon attached to a long pole."[28]

During

government of the UK recommended collecting gull eggs as a supplement to limited supplies of hen's eggs. The official suggestion was that the eggs be boiled and "eaten cold".[29] The government also issued Food Production Leaflet No. 30, which offered "special guidance for collecting gull eggs".[30] On the World War II homefront, when chicken eggs were again in short supply in the United Kingdom (due to food rationing), wild-harvested gull eggs became a popular substitute.[31] The visually similar eggs of the black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) had long been used as a fraudulent counterfeit for luxury plover eggs[32] (although there were ongoing debates about distinctions in flavor), and thus gull-egg market networks were already in place, such as the 20,000 gull eggs taken annually from Scoulton Mere in Norfolk.[33][34][35] Immediately after the end of World War II, Rupert Baring, 4th Baron Revelstoke sold over 100,000 gull eggs a year to British city dwellers.[5] In 1948, some 50,000 gull eggs were harvested from the Colne Estuary's Rat Island and shipped to market in London, leaving the island's gull hens to sit on just 13 eggs in five nests.[36]

Gull egging is now strictly regulated in the United Kingdom, although gull-egg piracy has been documented, including at Holmfirth, West Yorkshire,[37] Poole Harbour, Dorset,[38] and on the Copeland Islands off Northern Ireland.[39] There are fewer than 100 licensed gull eggers in the UK, and only licensed eggers are permitted to collect a limited number of gull eggs from a limited number of sites for a limited number of days.[40][41] Since the mid-20th century the London market for wild bird eggs has largely been filled by the eggs of the black-headed gull, in large part because the market is haunted by the ghost of plover's eggs.[6][42] Black-headed gulls' eggs have long been collected off the marshlands of Northumberland.[23] In the 2000s decade, some 10,000 gull eggs were taken annually from a property in the Scottish Borders.[43] Harvesting gull eggs on the Solent is said to benefit Sandwich terns (Thalasseus sandvicensis) that would otherwise suffer from predation and defensive behaviors by nesting gulls; removing the gull eggs prompts replacement laying behaviors and postpones anti-tern antics for three crucial weeks.[44]

In 1997, there were 35 licensed collectors who provided 54,000 gull eggs for the UK market.[44] In 2016, there were but 18 licensed gull eggers,[38] and a single legally acquired black-headed gull egg went for as much as £10 (equivalent to £11.59 in 2021).[45] In 2023, it was reported that over 160,000 black-headed gull eggs had been collected under licence since 2019, leading conservation organizations such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to call for an end to gull egging,[46] citing instances when Mediterranean gull (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus) eggs were taken illegally from the Poole Harbour gullery by unlicensed egg collectors.[46][47] Mediterranean gulls and black-headed gulls look much alike, but the rarer Mediterranean gulls are on the RSPB's Amber List, indicating there is concern about their local conservation status.[46][47][48] Similarly, Science & Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) notes that oystercatcher (genus Haematopus) nests may superficially resemble gull nests, but outlines some visible differences and reminds householders that moving or destroying oystercatcher nests and/or eggs is illegal.[49]

A black-headed gull's egg is the size of a bantam hen's egg.[44] When purchased "in bulk", 20 black-headed gull eggs are roughly equivalent in food volume to a dozen standard chicken eggs.[2] London restaurants and gentleman's clubs frequently serve gull eggs soft-boiled, seasoned with celery salt or paired with the spring vegetable asparagus.[50][23][43] Circa 1971, Irston R. Barnes [d], an economist and former chairman of the American Audubon Society, wrote that the taste of London-restaurant gull eggs was unremarkable except for a faintly oily quality.[6] In 1993, British chef and food writer Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall found gulls' eggs to be more or less undistinguished in flavor compared to ordinary chicken eggs.[25] He did, however, find them visually pleasing and enhanced by the "indubitable aphrodisiac of price".[25]

Scandinavia

The only enemies that the gull has, besides nature, are themselves and, in the spring, human beings. Gull eggs taste as good as their bodies do foul. Egg-hunting was the duty of the women and the children, and no duty was ever performed with lighter hearts.

— 
Larus marinus
) sitting on a nest of eggs in Sweden in 2016

North America

For personal use, Greenland permits collection of great black-backed gull eggs until 31 May each year.[9] Glaucous-gull eggs can be harvested until 15 June.[11] Those collecting gull eggs to sell at the kalaaliaraq markets must first purchase a hunting license.[9]

American herring gull (Larus smithsonianus) eggs were historically collected in the eastern provinces of Canada, sometimes preserved for the remainder of the year in waterglass.[55] The Ahousat and Anaham First Nations of British Columbia, Canada, also harvest wild gull eggs.[56] One Ahousat family goes gull egging three times over the course of one week in June, and usually takes one of the three eggs laid in each nest.[57]

Hoonah Indian Association, said of the practice, "The elders need their traditional foods, because happiness heals."[59] Iñupiat would use one gull egg in place of two chicken eggs when baking.[21] Yup'ik people also participate in managed harvests of seabird and gull eggs.[1] According to an Edible magazine account of a Yup'ik egg hunt, "Once in awhile, an egg will be harvested after having been incubated for several days. These yolks have a thick texture of custard and the whites will be runny when boiled."[1] Gull eggs collected on the coast of Alaska may be used in "tricked-out" boxed-cake-mix cakes that are popular in Alaskan communities.[60]

Egging without a permit is illegal in the

islands of Baja California, Mexico.[13]

See also

  • Hunter-gatherer – Peoples who forage or hunt for most or all of their food and life
  • List of edible invasive species
  • Muttonbirding – seasonal harvesting of the chicks of petrels for food, oil and feathers
  • Norwegian cuisine – Culinary traditions of Norway
  • Oölogy
     – Branch of ornithology studying bird eggs, nests and breeding behavior
  • Quail eggs – Egg dish
  • Yup'ik cuisine
     – Culinary traditions of Yup'ik people

Notes

  1. chicken eggs
    .
  2. ^ Some introduced species, including house sparrows and starlings, are exempt from these protections.[64]

References

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  5. ^ a b c Burke, Helen Lucy (24 May 1987). "Just plain gullible". Colour Tribune. Sunday Tribune. Dublin, Ireland. p. 16. Retrieved 2023-05-26 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. ^ a b c d Barnes, Irston R. (21 July 1971). "Gulls' eggs recall days of the plover". The Tampa Times. Washington Post Special. p. 52. Retrieved 2023-05-27 – via Newspapers.com. The practice of eating the eggs of colony seabirds goes back to prehistoric times.
  7. ^ "egging". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. The action of collecting (wild fowls') eggs; also attributive. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
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    . Aside from nest robbing by humans, which still persists despite the efforts of Mexican authorities, the Heermann's gulls on Isla Rasa incurred no significant egg loss from interspecific predation during our stay on the island.
  14. ^
    ISSN 0362-4331
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  27. ^ n.a. (15 May 1915). "Raid on Eggs". St. Andrew's Citizen. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-05-26 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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  30. S2CID 90351821
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  42. ISSN 1072-7825. Archived
    from the original on 2022-10-04. Retrieved 2023-06-01. At any rate, plover's eggs have been succeeded in England by gull eggs; if the hosts are really laving themselves out on the meal, the chances are that it will begin with gull eggs, hard-boiled, served cold, in the shell, with mayonnaise.
  43. ^
    ISSN 1075-7864. Archived
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  44. ^
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    S2CID 199525506
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  65. ^
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Further reading

External links
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