jmcquown wrote:
>
> We probably figured out oysters were good eating by watching
> shore birds crack them open on rocks.

Ok Jill. I've just got to tease you on this one. BAD EXAMPLE! No
birds get oysters and fly up and drop them on rocks. NONE do that. In
your defense though, you've probably never harvested live oysters in
the sea, so you are excused. heheheh

Newborn oysters (spat or scat?) (I'm not looking this up) get spurted
out of mother's shell and they drift with the current until the first
thing they bump against. They attach to this and that's where they
will spend their entire lives. In nature, it's either rocks or other
established oyster shells. Oyster beds can be deep (where no birds
will go) or oysters can attach to shallow water rocks and other
oysters on the same rock.

The shallow water oysters (and they are just as good) are exposed
during low tides and underwater at high tides.

Even though exposed at low tides, there's no bird on earth that can
pry one off a rock or oyster cluster. I get them often here and you
really need a pry bar to separate them from a rock and then from each
other.

I'll bet it's a very rare seagull that has ever tasted an oyster.

G.

Clams are a little more doable for a bird if they know to dig in the
sand.