Throughout the year, Maganrord will be reporting to you on the western gull's way of life and certain themes will emerge. The most salient of these will be casual violence.

Two weeks ago, we brought you this post which included video of a female gull soliciting a male for mating, positioning herself with her back to him and issuing randy vocalizations. Rather than obliging his partner, or gently indicating to her that it was not yet that time of year, he bit her neck.

In the months to come, we'll be giving an account of the dreary social realities that obtain in our gull colony and it will make anything our peregrines have ever done seem unbrutal and positively civilized. Gulls fight one another as a first recourse and they kill and eat each other's young without reflection.

To whet your appetite, here are two videos of recent gull fights on Alcatraz.