I don't think the vultures were eating the seagulls, just outcompeting them in the sky and feeding at the dump. We're about 20 miles upriver from the ocean, so the gulls can go back to the shore. I'm happy to see the vultures, though. I think it means healing from the damage done by DDT. There's an osprey nest in the next town over, too. Thoreau did spot an osprey. He kept it secret, because the locals would shoot any bird they could, for food or because they were deemed "pests." Or just because they had guns. I dunno. I go back to Thoreau a lot, because he lived a few miles from here and describes places I know pretty well, but they've changed enormously in the past 150 years.