Why are seagulls sometimes spotted far inland, like in the parking lots of Midwestern shopping centers? In a word, garbage. Much like raccoons and pigeons, gulls are scavengers. Quite often, the pickings are far more plentiful in the parking lots of your local McDonald’s and Wal-Mart than they are in Long Island Sound. If there aren’t enough French fries on the ground, the dumpster is always a good alternate source of gull nutrition.

Landfills are the all-you-can-eat buffets of seagull dining areas. In fact, because of their webbed feet, seagulls prefer large, flat areas for scavenging, which is why they don’t usually opt for backyard bird feeders. Humans have been generating so much garbage in the past few decades that many of the gulls you see inland today have never been near the coast. They are third- and fourth-generation birds whose ancestors built nests and raised their families on the roofs of Family Dollar stores.

Oh, and while you might call seagulls “rats with wings,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls them “protected.” It’s illegal to hunt or otherwise harm them.