While there, they often congregate in parking lots. Plentiful PickingsThe gulls are drawn to parking lots mainly for two reasons. Parking lots are smorgasbords of food wrappers and scraps, especially if there’s a supermarket or restaurant nearby. There’s one more aspect to the appeal of parking lots as bird buffets. In a 2015 study, researchers in Massachusetts looked into why big groups of ring-billed gulls were gathering in area parking lots.