Gull egg
Wild gull eggs are a seasonal food in subarctic regions.
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Gull eggs are the eggs of wild gulls, gathered in spring from their nests. They are notable for their speckled shells, which provide camouflage, and a flavor often described as fishy or salty, reflecting the birds' marine environment. The cooked albumen is especially white or opalescent, while the yolks are almost-red orange.
Quick Facts
- Collection season (spring)
- spring
Facts from the source article.
Europe
For generations, people in the British Isles have gathered gull eggs in large numbers, treating them as a springtime treat. Wild seabird eggs were once collected all along the English Channel. Households sometimes used them to make up for a shortage of chicken eggs: when a hen needed to sit on her own eggs to keep the flock going, people would go out and collect gull eggs instead. Farmers also took gull eggs for two reasons—to cut down on gulls they saw as a nuisance, and to use the eggs as fertilizer rich in nitrogen and calcium.
One old story claims that in ancient times, harvesters would destroy every egg from the first round of laying in a single day. This forced the gulls to lay a new batch all at once, so the collectors could come back a week later and be sure of finding fresh eggs. A report from 1906 says that after gulls began nesting in March, the first two clutches laid in England’s fens and salt marshes were taken for eating or selling.
The third clutch was left alone for the mother gull to incubate; otherwise, she and her kind would never return to that marsh. In May 1912, two young men in Fife, Scotland, were charged with illegally holding seven eider duck eggs under the Wild Birds Protection Act 1880. At the time of their arrest, they also had 654 gull eggs, which were perfectly legal. Two decades later, a letter to a Scottish newspaper described how people collected gull eggs on a loch, using a tablespoon tied to a long pole to lift eggs from dangerously placed nests.
North America
Greenland permits collection of great black-backed gull eggs for personal use until 31 May each year, and glaucous-gull eggs until 15 June. Those selling gull eggs at kalaaliaraq markets must first purchase a hunting license. American herring gull eggs were historically collected in eastern Canada, sometimes preserved in waterglass.
The Ahousat and Anaham First Nations of British Columbia harvest wild gull eggs; one Ahousat family goes egging three times over one week in June, usually taking one of three eggs per nest. Native Alaskans have long collected glaucous-winged gull eggs from mid-May to mid-June, but by the 1960s the U.S. National Park Service prohibited this practice within Tlingit tribal lands. More than 50 years later, the Huna Tlingit Traditional Gull Egg Use Act, passed in 2014, reauthorized collection at five locations in Glacier Bay National Park by Tlingit people.
Frank Wright Jr., president of the Hoonah Indian Association, stated, "The elders need their traditional foods, because happiness heals." Iñupiat used one gull egg in place of two chicken eggs when baking. Yup'ik people participate in managed harvests; according to one account, eggs incubated for several days have yolks with a thick custard texture and runny whites when boiled. Gull eggs collected on the Alaskan coast may be used in "tricked-out" boxed-cake-mix cakes popular in Alaskan communities.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Gull egg (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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