Seagull appreciation time

If you have been out on the water constantly or hang around the water voraciously, eventually seagull consciousness begins to occur. I can recall the first time seagulls registered in my brain. I was on a Canadian destroyer back in 1974 going to some mysterious area to load the ship with ammunition. We arrived quite early in the morning and I went outside on the deck after breakfast to watch the loading. But what stuck in my brain, still fairly new to the Navy life, was the dead calm, the glassy surface of the water, mirroring the surroundings and the sounds of seagulls in the area somehow enhanced the almost meditative scene. One of my favourite Navy memories.

I slowly have developed a deeper curiosity about these creatures and came across this article I thought some might enjoy:

https://www.donenright.com/7-habits-highly-effective-seagulls/

They taste like fish.

Rats with wings. An invasive species in many places. There ought to be a bounty on them.

They'd all be dead in a week if we closed all our dumps, stopped throwing trash into the ocean, and tourists at seafood restaurants stopped feeding them french fries.

Well, they are rather cute little beasts. I gave this fella a ten minute ride in a "no wake" zone last year running between Savannah and Hilton Head.

Oh, I thought you meant this Seagull.
https://youtu.be/yVK1lH-Xdhc

Andy G said:

Oh, I thought you meant this Seagull.
https://youtu.be/yVK1lH-Xdhc

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Me too!

Mark P said:

Well, they are rather cute little beasts. I gave this fella a ten minute ride in a "no wake" zone last year running between Savannah and Hilton Head.

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How long did it take you to clean off the poop after he flew away?

CaptTom said:

Rats with wings. An invasive species in many places. There ought to be a bounty on them.

They'd all be dead in a week if we closed all our dumps, stopped throwing trash into the ocean, and tourists at seafood restaurants stopped feeding them french fries.

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For a minute I thought this was my post.

Live amongst them and they quickly become the enemy....OK at a distance but not close by.

Greetings,
Mr. ps. Yup, distance is fine BUT if there were no gulls, the garbage piling up on the beaches would be unlivable and a toxic mess or at least more of a toxic mess that some are now.

My bow hitchhiker left when I finished eating my bagel since I didn't feed him, or because I left the no wake zone and picked up speed. I was going 20 mph and this little guy was cruising along my starboard side for a minute hoping for a morsel. He left no poop on the canvas unlike those huge marina birds - what a mess they make. Next boat - no canvas!!

Steven Seagull?

Sometimes in Cleveland, there are so many of the damn things swirling around, that it can actually be kinda disorienting. I've had it happen a few times where they were all tornadoing around the ship in one direction, thousands and thousands of them, and it became difficult to tell if the ship was swinging left or right.

...

Wifey B: My first memory of Sea Gulls. Between Christmas and New Years, 2000, hubby and I had only known each other 2 months or so and took our first trip together to Myrtle Beach. We fed the Sea Gulls from our balcony. They were so beautiful. I did find out something not long ago that Sea Gulls greatly prefer food that has been touched by humans.

Then I was amazed that there were Sea Gulls on the lake in NC, the one we ended up living on. The story goes that long long ago they were traveling south for the winter and storms hit so they were forced to stop. Typical snowbirds I guess. Well, some of them decided why fly all the way to FL when we can just stop here in NC and they kept returning. I don't know as twas before I was born and long before I ever went to NC.

I love them and they really work hard cleaning up after us humans.

The herring season opens very soon along Vancouver Island and one of the main highlight areas for visitors to experience this phenomena is French Creek. Basically herring come to spawn over a short two week period and fisher types from humans, sea lions, seagulls, any living creature dependent on the ocean for food, gets involved.

My home is just around two miles away from the marina and area and during the herring run the sea lions bark continuously until late into the night. I can hear them from my house. There can be 40 - 60 sea lions in and around the marina, many taking breaks on the rocks of the ocean break.

An interesting occurrence I have never seen anywhere else is a seagull migration from French Creek and south flying to somewhere more northern, not sure of their destination on the east coast of the Island. What is noteworthy is this migration will last a half hour with hundreds of birds if not more flying by continuously, so think how many birds that is in half an hour. To observe seagulls in a migration pattern is unusual.

I have two lingering memories of seagulls. One summer my father took us camping on one of the Thimble Islands in Long Island Sound. The stinkin' seagulls screamed and yelled all night long and never let us sleep, and I remember sipping and falling on rocks covered with thick layers of slippery seagull poop to get from the small boat to the camping area.

Memory 2: A bridge over the River Thames in downtown London a few years ago. There was a sign posted that said something like "£92,000,000 fine for feeding seagulls." Those silly Brits, I thought to myself, how harmful can it be to feed a morsel to a hungry seagull? I offered one chip (a/k/a french fry) to a nearby gull and instantly triggered a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." We had to run for our lives. Parents had to shield small babies. I thought about jumping into the Thames to escape the onslaught.

At our last mooring a seagull took to nesting on the bow of our boat. Each time I would just dump the nest and contents overboard and sweep up the debris.
I was hoping the bird would desist, but that did not happen.

After a while, whenever I approached, the seagull would squawk and what seemed like the entire seagull population of the bay would be swirling around the dinghy as a very angry escort. Luckily they did not peck or poo on me.

Andy G said:

Oh, I thought you meant this Seagull.
https://youtu.be/yVK1lH-Xdhc

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Thanks for posting that. I went there right away too.
Who else calls the other bird a shithawk

We have a seagull (Jimmy)thats been hangin on our boat for almost 15yrs.

D.Duck44 said:

At our last mooring a seagull took to nesting on the bow of our boat. Each time I would just dump the nest and contents overboard and sweep up the debris.
I was hoping the bird would desist, but that did not happen.

After a while, whenever I approached, the seagull would squawk and what seemed like the entire seagull population of the bay would be swirling around the dinghy as a very angry escort. Luckily they did not peck or poo on me.

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Wifey B: Seagulls are very smart. They gather as a group and all stamp their feet to fool earthworms into thinking it's raining. Cruel but smart. They drop hard shelled food onto rocks to crack it and get the food. The follow plows in fields to get what they dig up. Males and females pair for lives and share the responsibility of taking care of their offspring. They have very good communication skills with sounds and body movement. They are one of the few animals that can drink both fresh and salt water as they have glands to flush the salt out through their bills. Sort of bird watermakers.

They're also the state bird of Utah, well deservedly. In the "Miracle of the Gulls" the Mormon settlers were dealing with a plague of crickets. Sea Gulls to the rescue.

Boat said:

They taste like fish.

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Actually, when I sent a novice crew member ashore to buy a chicken for dinner in Palma de Mallorca, he returned with a good size nicely cleaned bird which I seasoned and put in the pressure cooker expecting a grand dinner in 15 minutes. Sadly, after more than an hour and a half in my pressure cooker, that damn bird was still inedible!
I came to the conclusion my crew member's naivety had been taken advantage of by the shop keeper and he was sold a seagull instead of a chicken. So, I can't agree or disagree about taste, but if you've figured out a way to cook them, please share.

We like all the birds we encounter on the water, including seagulls. But I don't think they can hold a candle to pelicans when it comes to aviation skills. They are impressive!

Pic of Jimmy in his pool.

Pretty funny seeing one trying to swallow a starfish

On the flip side...they sure have fun in 40 knot+ winds!

BrianSmith said:

But I don't think they can hold a candle to pelicans when it comes to aviation skills. They are impressive!

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Then you obviously haven't read Johnathan Livingston Seagull. I suggest you pick up a copy as its a great read!
As for aviation skills, I don't think many birds can surpass the boobies. They seem to be the daredevils of the sea birds, flying across the bow as close as they can while we're moving along at speed. Sometimes they will hover alongside us while we're at the helm for long periods of time, just an arm's length away, waiting for the boat to spook a flying fish into the air. Then they dive down, grab the flying fish and re-station themselves near us.
I have actually seen them dive into the water, catch a fish and exit the water flying!

Yeah, I kinda figured there would be at least one child on this site that would go that direction.

Better?

Can't verify, but heard pelicans are eaten in the Bahamas.

Thinking of this thread.....every single cruising boat owner I have talked to in the last week or two, out of several dozen....every single cruiser had no real use for seagulls.

Letting them exist, but if they come close.... ....nope...no use for'em.

foreverunderway said:

Then you obviously haven't read Johnathan Livingston Seagull. I suggest you pick up a copy as its a great read!
As for aviation skills, I don't think many birds can surpass the boobies. They seem to be the daredevils of the sea birds, flying across the bow as close as they can while we're moving along at speed. Sometimes they will hover alongside us while we're at the helm for long periods of time, just an arm's length away, waiting for the boat to spook a flying fish into the air. Then they dive down, grab the flying fish and re-station themselves near us.
I have actually seen them dive into the water, catch a fish and exit the water flying!

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Actually, I have read Jonathan Livingston Seagull, albeit decades ago. I'll stick with my assertion that pelicans are more impressive than seagulls.

Funny you mentioned boobies, as we've had so many of them follow us around over the last 18 months, chasing down the flying fish we scare up. They are incredible fliers, and swimmers! We've seen what you describe countless times - the dive under the water, only to emerge flying. Incredible. I just didn't want to mention boobies because I didn't want RT Firefly to do what he did. (Just kidding, RTF.)

I grew up with seagulls. I remember well my first in-person encounter with a pelican.

Bait fish feature prominently in my story