Well, I found out what's up with the gulls and the Brant geese: the gulls think they eat the same food. Brants hang out in the water, but they eat on land as well as in the water. They swoop in flocks onto the grass and when they feel peckish they peck. They're going for the grass itself, and grains both natural and dropped by people -- say, cracker crumbs -- but the gulls don't know that and think they're going for worms and other protein, which is what gulls like. So they try to chase them off.

Now, as for the baby buffleheads, here's the story. Buffleheads live up in Canada and don't come down here until it gets so cold they start running out of food. There's a flock that winters off of Red Hook, in Brooklyn; and for the past two winters there's been one lone bachelor male who's been making his home up here, a couple of miles north in the Hudson. Occasionally he's joined by another male and a female, but he's usually alone.

The other morning I came to the river and found him swimming very close to the seawall, diving and popping up, getting himself some breakfast. Twenty yards away was a tiny flock of seven juveniles, three males and four females, still in their brown baby feathers. They were diving and eating, too, and managing to stay fairly close together. After about twenty minutes they all had had enough to eat, and started cleaning their feathers and napping, still staying in a pack and pretty close to the wall. The adult male by then was popping up way out in the river, ignoring them completely. A gull began divebombing the flock of babies, just out of boredom, I think. The largest male, who'd elected himself leader, started swimming in a direct line toward the adult male, leading the flock away from the gull. The adult male paid absolutely no attention to any of them as they followed him around the water.

So here's what I think was going on: These guys were born late. Maybe their mother lost her first eggs, or her first brood, to a fox or something. So she tried again, succeeded, and then stayed behind with them when the flock left for Brooklyn, because they weren't ready to fly that far. Finally she had to bring them down. And I think that by the time they reached my pier they were flagging. She spotted the bachelor male, thought "Aha! A bufflehead -- must be an okay spot for buffleheads!" and set her babies down. Then she flew off to Brooklyn to reconnoiter. The bachelor male had no interest in these babies; but they knew an adult when they saw one. They ate and rested, but when they felt threatened, they swam right over to him. The gull left them alone once they did that, so obviously it worked, even though he didn't care. Me, I was freezing after awhile and had to leave; but the next day the babies were gone and I haven't seen them since. I assume mama came back and took them to Brooklyn, to join everybody else.