Be nice to have a bit of variation in our local sea birds, but you work with what you’ve got I guess. The local Black Backed gulls hang out at low tide on Sumner beach, picking up pipi’s in the shallow water. They then fly up into the sky and drop them onto the beach, using gravity and the impact on the hard sand to split the shells open, exposing the helpless shellfish inside. There is usually a bit or argy-bargie over the spoils from the ever present Red Billed Gulls, but the much larger BBG’s usually get their way.