Since the massive earthquake that struck Chile last month there are still daily aftershocks. We felt four of them during our recent stay in the Valparaiso area (damage from big quake shown in top photo). One particularly strong aftershock triggered an interesting reaction from some local avian residents.
At 4:35 AM, on March 27th, I awoke to creaking and shaking sounds in our Vina del Mar hotel room. It was a 5.3 quake that lasted 30 seconds. Immediately afterward I heard the raucous shrieking of Kelp Gulls (pictured above in photo by Charlie Moores/10,000 birds) who did not like having their perches shaken. Kelp Gulls are common in central and southern Chile. They often hang out in groups and are described in Birds of Southern South America as being “rowdy” and having an “onomatopoetic,” or translated by Webster’s, a voice “…imitating the natural sound associated with the object or action involved; echoism”. This was the first time I had ever heard bird vocalizations prompted by an earthquake.
Charles Darwin wrote of his 1835 visit to earthquake-ravaged Concepcion, Chile in Voyage of the Beagle: “A bad earthquake at once destroys our oldest associations: the earth, the very emblem of solidity, has moved beneath our feet like a thin crust over a fluid;” This apparently is as true for gulls as it is for us.
