Flying pixel gulls. More than likely, they are compression artifacts. At least that is all we can see of them. They may have been gulls at one time. The photo looks to have been heavily compressed before it was loaded on the web, and the camera is from 2000 at the latest. Just download the original pic and go to work on the white spots. They spoil the rest of it, anyway.
I assumed that someone had scanned an old fashioned 5x7 print of a
photograph, and there was a little dust on the scanner or on the print.
That’s what I always get when I scan photos.