Herb, I can't help you out with any personal experience, but I do have a book, 'Carving Waterbirds' by Anthony Hillman, Dover Publications, that has a pretty decent pattern for a gull, either seagull or herring gull, and general instructions in the front of the book for carving water birds. *I think the book is available on the buy books part of this site. *I got this book at Rockler in the twin cities, MN.
www.stillerpatterns.com * * * *has gull patterns, also.
Al