I was Robbed

[garbler]

I was down in Fairfield CT doing a pre-purchase survey on a lovely wood S&S Bill Healy built yawl at the Pequot YC. Boat was tied up in their marina so I decided to start at the top and I’d just started coming down from the masthead. I’d been up there about half an hour when the owner yelled up asking me if I’d swap out the anchor light bulb. I almost always try to help out if I can and since I was at the truck anyway I yelled down to send me a Phillips head screw driver, putty knife, paper towels and small tube of silicon and the bulb. About ten of fifteen minutes later up comes a bucket with the necessary tools and after another twenty minutes the job is done and the light works. Luckily I didn’t drop any screws.

Back in the cockpit the owner’s son shows up with deli sandwiches for everybody. I told them to go ahead and eat as I wanted to finish the inspection of the lower standing rigging wire, terminal swages and fittings. My sandwich was left next to my tool bag on the cockpit seat. When I finally got back to the cockpit to eat the sandwich it was gone. I asked my client if he took it inside but he knew nothing. I looked around then noticed four or five big white swans fighting over something about twenty feet from the boat. Then I saw the wrapper floating off and realized those long necked SOB thieves grabbed it. Worse than seagulls and really big.

Later on I was coming out of the starboard cockpit sail locker and poked my head up and about 12 inches from my head was a big swan just looking over the cockpit coaming checking me out. Wow that’s a big bird and big head ! I had no idea their necks are so long that on a low boat like this they can actually reach into the cockpit. Next thing I know he like strikes at me and steals my ball cap right off my head and paddles off. I’m pissed as it was an original Nefertiti 12 meter America Cup hat - last of the wooden hulls built at Graves in Marblehead. The ladies up on the yacht club veranda thought the whole spectacle was sooo cute. Yea right !

Rick

 

[Peter B]

Great story, and at least you retained your sense of humour...you did...right..?

 

[slowgoesit]

I laughed, but just curious, what is the penalty in Fairfield, CT for shooting/snaring white swans?

 

[Pete Meisinger]

Every area has it's own pests. Duluth has seagulls (rats with wings), Wisconsin has Canadian geese, Northern Wisconsin has squirrels and skunks. They are all pests but what can you do? At least they are not 2,000 sea Lions sleeping on my boat.

pete

 

[AnsleyS]

I once lost a cooked steak from the grill to a diving seagull. Pissed me off.

 

[Delta Riverat]

Shoulda dove off the side and stabbed it with your Buck knife -

 

[BruceK]

In England, all swans are owned by the King. Retaliation might be frowned upon, not only by the swan.
Our seagulls are addicted to hot chips/french fries.
And when barbecuing in parks and treed areas, beware the kookaburra on a tree above the bbq cocking its head to one side for a better view of what`s cooking, a swoop is imminent.

 

[Gdavid]

Occasionally, I witness a new cruiser making the mistake of feeding swans in an anchorage. Seems innocent enough until they are banging on your hull at 0500 demanding another snack.

 

[long-cours.62]

Swan are very useful for us when we was in Norway or/and Sweden because with them when we enter in anchorage we know how close to the shore we could go : no closer than where the Swan can eat the bottom grass !

 

[Lollygag1]

Stayed at a resort in Ft Myers where an egret had a black carbonized beak from stealing food off the community grill. All the other birds spent the day hunting snails while this guy was smearing steaks and dogs

 

[backinblue]

I also almost lost a steak on the grill to a gull, but the top of the magna kettle grill was in my hand and fended him off. I was at a beach in Newport RI once and the gulls there were amazingly skilled at finding unattended bags on beach blankets and going inside them to remove bags of chips, etc. Good entertainment!

 

[dannc]

We were in a small town in Scotland years ago. The seagulls up there were huge, I swear the were large enough to carry off a baby.

I think they were really Skuas not seagulls.

They would hang around the town square and wait for people to come out of the shops with food. They were pretty aggressive in trying to get people to drop the food they had too. The birds got some ice cream from a couple of people.

Had a similar problem in Ireland with the seagulls, and they were seagulls, going after food being eaten outside. Aggressive but not as bad as the Skuas.

Later,
Dan

 

[Marco Flamingo]

In BC, it's not seagulls, it's crows. We were fishing with a guide and went in to have lunch. It was one of the guide's birthday, so they had purchased a cake in town and left it on one of the boats. When they went out to get the cake, they found that crows had got on board, gone forward in the cabin, opened the box, and eaten the cake. The biggest part of the mess was that this was in the late fall. The crow's main diet was berries. So when they crows ate and crapped, it stained everything purple.

 

[Cold Duck]

Have picture of wife on honeymoon in Lusanne Switzerland feeding swan on ramp. She has her hand above her head feeding the little bugga!

 

[kthoennes]

In England, all swans are owned by the King. Retaliation might be frowned upon, not only by the swan...Our seagulls are addicted to hot chips/french fries....

You can say that again. A few years ago were were in London on Westminster Bridge. We saw the signs that said something like "Fifty zillion £ fine for feeding the seagulls." We thought, oh those fussy Brits, micro-managing every moment of daily life with arcane rules and bureaucracy and severe penalties -- until some tourist standing next to us held up a "chip" to the birds. Instant Alfred Hitchcock movie. I thought the gulls were going to carry off my wife and I was going to have to grab her ankles to save her from being 'gulled. Flocks of gulls way off in the distance at the Tower of London -- maybe Scotland! -- saw that chip with their beady little eyes and zoomed in like fighter jets.

 

[SIBERNUT]

God designed swans and geese so that a normal human can get their hand completely around their neck. Very similar to small yappy dogs in that respect

 

[BruceK]

Cygnet Rescue Downunder

Will they bite the hand that saved them? Maybe, but it`s tough leaving them to die:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-05/stranded-cygnets-rescued-from-ocean-south-west-wa/102004012

 

[North Baltic sea]

Hi, very nice story swans.

My stories...

I have met nightmare swans several times. Usually in popular places where they have been fed.

My boat's Hull is flag blue and I keep it in a good shine so it's like a mirror. The swan sees itself from the surface of the boat and starts a territorial battle.

The opponent is as tenacious as the attacker, so you have to act and stop the fight, you can do it with the washdovn pump to spray water.

A tenacious swan can come back again either after 15 minutes or the next day, at best in the morning at 04:00, when the sun has already risen and the "day" has started for the swan.

A nasty wake-up call with a huge knocking around the hull of the boat. ��

NBs

 

[Steve DAntonio]

Raven Extortion

Great story, I've been the victim of bird theft on more than a few occasions. Being an avid bird photographer, I can't complain I suppose, but I was once hit up for some avian hush money.

A few years ago I was hiking around Cradle Lake in Tasmania. I took a photo of a very majestic-looking raven. Afterward he followed me and then landed in a branch about 20 feet in front of me, making loud, shrill call. He kept it up for about 10 minutes, fly, perch, call, fly, perch, call, until I finally appeased him with half a granola bar, after which he flew away, seemingly content.

 

[Shrew]

Stayed at a resort in Ft Myers where an egret had a black carbonized beak from stealing food off the community grill. All the other birds spent the day hunting snails while this guy was smearing steaks and dogs

Are you sure that wasn't a Snowy Egret?

Great Egret's have yellow beaks and black legs and black feet.
Snowy Egrets have black beaks and black legs, but yellow feet.

 

[2savage]

Once had a seagull steal a burger right off my bbq grillle while I was cooking it!! Coeckles Harbor, Shelter Island.

 

[Finestkind]

Mentioning Newport…

Bad enough that any town with a beach has problems with Seagull Dive-Bombers; one local ‘Eccentric’ likes to go out after the Lifeguards go home & throw *huge* amounts of old bread up into the air!!
Wife was beak-struck in the face (just above the eye) by a local winged rat!
The Dumb*SS just laughed….

 

[BruceK]

Great story, I've been the victim of bird theft on more than a few occasions. Being an avid bird photographer, I can't complain I suppose, but I was once hit up for some avian hush money.

A few years ago I was hiking around Cradle Lake in Tasmania. I took a photo of a very majestic-looking raven. Afterward he followed me and then landed in a branch about 20 feet in front of me, making loud, shrill call. He kept it up for about 10 minutes, fly, perch, call, fly, perch, call, until I finally appeased him with half a granola bar, after which he flew away, seemingly content.

Fairly sure that`s a currawong, not a raven. Doesn`t spoil the story though, and it seems smarter than most.

 

[Steve DAntonio]

Fairly sure that`s a currawong, not a raven. Doesn`t spoil the story though, and it seems smarter than most.

Bruce, just looked that up and I suspect you are right, thanks for enlightening me, that's a species with which I was not familiar.