Little Gulls and Microspots

This past February, a pair of Little Gulls showed up in Port Aransas. Little Gulls can appear just about anywhere in North America, but they're uncommon in any location. Hoping to see and/or photograph these unusual gulls, many Texans visited the beaches of Port A during the Valentine's Day month.

I ventured to the base of the South Jetty several times, soon recognizing a pattern of behavior of the Little Gulls and of the Bonaparte's Gulls with which they like to associate. At night, the birds would sleep on the beach. Early in the morning, they'd take flight and head out onto the Gulf, to do some fishing. Often, during these feeding forays, they'd hover and dive close to the jetty rocks. When done fishing, they'd return to the beach and join a tightly packed “loafing flock,” including other types of gulls and terns, to rest and preen.

So, at times, birders hoping to see and photograph one of the Little Gulls could do so from a parked vehicle, without even getting sand on their feet. But, the images would depict a distant bird standing in a mixed flock. Of course, fortune might allow one to take a picture of the bird coming into the flock, or taking off to leave on a fishing trip.

Taking a picture of a Little Gull hovering and diving to catch fish required making a trek down the rocks of the South Jetty, into the waters of the Gulf. There, mostly near the end of the line of granite boulders, usually on the leeward side, numbers of gulls hovered and dived. A diligent few photographers managed to capture images of the Little Gulls feeding close in front of us. All this reinforced a concept for me, one which applies to both birding and fishing.

When fishing, anglers try to accomplish a necessary task of identifying the parts of an area where fish typically hunt for their food. Especially for dedicated lure-chunkers, targeting fish in locations where they actively feed increases the chances of urging them to take a swipe at an offering. Conversely, targeting fish in places where they typically rest often results in lots of empty casts and retrieves.

Narrowing the scope of the search for specific locations in which to target actively feeding fish starts with an acknowledgment of how scale plays a part in the quest. All competent anglers naturally understand this basic tenet. When deciding where to fish, they first identify a part of a bay system in which to make their effort. We might label this large-scale element as a place. Places to fish would include (in various bay systems) the King Ranch Shoreline, the Tide Gauge Bar, Hannah's Reef, Pringle Lake, Live Oak Bay.....and on and on. All these places, and many others, regularly hold numbers of fish.

But astute anglers don't just go fishing in a place; they narrow their search even more, when deciding precisely where to make their efforts. The first step in this process involves selecting a spot within the chosen place. Essentially, a spot is a known productive portion of a place. Spots would include the west end of Cathead, the north side of Gladys Hole, the right pocket of Twin Lake on the right, Trout Bayou, on the outside beach of Traylor Island... The most competent anglers gain familiarity with a vast catalog of spots, fishing each in conditions conducive to catching there.

The best sometimes take the reduction of scale when selecting precise locations to one more level, identifying microspots within the spots they fish. All microspots, as their name implies, represent the smallest scale entities in this search for productive locations, but they do show some variability in attributes. Microspots which exist because of the presence of a structural element are best thought of as permanent microspots.

Serpulid rocks and the granite boulders don't move; drains emptying back-lakes into main bay systems remain mostly unchanged for long periods of time. And while giant sand bars like the Tide Gauge and reefs like Bull Shoals do change slowly over time—the key word is slowly. Therefore, the positions of microspots associated with permanent structures have relatively fixed locations. Conversely, microspots associated with cover elements on the bottom have more transient locations.

Grass beds grow and decline, creating seams and other anomalies which generate temporary microspots, the locations of which change seasonally, with the life cycles of the plants which define them. The same applies to smaller oyster reefs, especially those present in areas where working oyster boats change their configuration regularly. Of course, all microspots, whether permanent or temporary in their design or source, provide more positive influence on anglers' efforts in some conditions than in others. So, both temporary and permanent microspots have transitory aspects.

A particular rock on a jetty system generates an eddy during a specific portion of either the outgoing or incoming tide, creating a microspot where predators wait to ambush their prey. While the tide moves in the right direction, with the right amplitude, the microspot enhances the efforts of savvy anglers within its reach. During slack tides, or when the tide moves too fast, too slow, or in the wrong direction, the microspot ceases to exist.

Similarly, when brisk north winds and falling tides dump water out of a back-lake and into the main body of a bay, predators set up on the edge of the connecting gut and take hapless prey pulled toward their faces. Without the influence of strong winds and tides moving water in a specific direction, the microspot temporarily disappears. The same applies to microspots associated with sandbars and reefs.

A tide rolling against the wind toward the steep face of a bar or reef creates an upwelling current. Hunting trout and reds often lurk on the upcurrent side of the structure in such a situation. In a place where some subtle anomaly or the presence of some cover element on the bottom further defines an ambush point, a microspot often exists, while the current and wind play together the right way. Changing the wind direction and type of tide movement changes the location(s) where nearby fish seek their prey.

Anglers who succeed in establishing the highest productivity levels generally have the best awareness of how local conditions like tidal movements and tide levels, wind speed/direction and water temperature influence the microspots within the spots they fish. They understand this in both positive and negative contexts, factoring in how the conditions influence not only the likelihood of fish using a microspot to feed actively, but also how the conditions affect their ability to target those fish.

For instance, a strong south wind blowing into a long dead-end gut surrounded by tall rocks in Baffin might fill a microspot with feeding fish, while also creating difficulty for anglers attempting to present lures to those fish. Similarly, fish using a microspot might feel no effects from a bull tide which renders the microspot unavailable to folks who want to wade. Factoring all these issues into decisions allows productive anglers to operate where they know fish actively feed, in conditions which allow them to function effectively.

In the end, this is the goal of all angling efforts made with a serious purpose. Anglers who identify as many microspots as possible and who understand how conditions affect those microspots both positively and negatively have a better chance at consistent productivity than those who think of all parts of a place or even a spot as having equal potential at all times. In this way, the attempt to catch fish on a daily basis closely resembles the quest to take a specific kind of picture of a Little Gull when one appears in a place.

Locating the bird might prove fairly easy, if one goes to the place where others have seen it. Showing up on the beach at the base of the South Jetty might provide a decent chance at a sighting of the bird at distance, perhaps flying, or loafing among birds of other species. But, taking a quality photo of the bird while it's feeding becomes much more likely when one identifies first a spot and then a microspot the bird will likely visit when looking for food, then sets up there in anticipation of an opportunity.

When I got my pictures of the feeding Little Gull, a stiff north wind sent waves crashing into the north face of the South Jetty, creating an eddy near its end, on the lee side. Numerous gulls (including the targeted ones) lined up in a relatively short stretch on that side, hovering until they spotted a fish, then diving to snatch it from the water. Once the strong, cold blow subsided, the whole scenario changed, and all the gulls moved away from the rocks to fish.

After the Little Gulls moved away from the jetty, photographing them feeding would require the use of a boat and plenty of good luck. Successful birders and anglers do all they can to eliminate their need for luck. To hedge their bets, the most accomplished use their knowledge of how hunger affects the behavior of the creatures they hope to locate and either identify and photograph, or catch on a rod and reel. They also consider how the changing conditions affect their targets' search for food and their own ability to function effectively in specific places.

The video associated with this piece provides a description of a pair of GPS files which include over 200 microspots, from Nueces Bay through Corpus Bay, down the ULM and into Baffin. MS203+ will work in any brand of GPS, and includes spreadsheets which give more information related to which conditions make fishing each microspot favorable, and which render them temporarily worthless. The video entitles viewers to a special discount on the product. For more information about MS203+, contact me via email at [email protected], or text/call me at 361-688-3714.