One mid-September afternoon on a beach in northern Massachusetts, I witnessed a crime. I was tempted to dip my toes in the still-warm sea, but I’m a birder, so I got distracted taking photos of gulls. One individual caught my eye: It had a metal band around one ankle and a plastic band around the other, put there by researchers to help study the species. Finding a banded bird is a lucky break. I knew that if I could make out the numbers stamped on the bands, I could contribute to science by reporting them to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab. Giddy, I zoomed in on the gull’s legs and started snapping. My photos were timestamped with the exact moment of the misdeed. On September 17, 2022, at 1:26 pm, the American Herring Gull with a leg band marked U10 yanked open a tote bag emblazoned with the word BEACH, pulled out a bag of goldfish crackers, and stabbed the package with its beak, scattering the salty snacks all over the sand. The bag’s owners yelled and...