Mascots of the Ocean

Seeing the seagulls at the beach reminds me of my college days when I lived near the Narragansett beaches while attending URI (University of Rhode Island).  At the time, Bad Company was my favorite group and their song Seagull was one of my favorite songs. This first verse always comes to mind when I see seagulls flying around. 

Seagull, you fly across the horizon

Into the misty morning sun.

Nobody asks you where you are going,

Nobody knows where you're from.

Yes, they are dirty.  Everyone here hates them here.  My son Mikey loves chasing them off the beach.  But I have to admit I love watching them fly (as long as they don’t crap on my head).   To me, they are the quintessential mascots of the ocean.  And I adore the ocean.

When you talk to people at the beach, everyone seems to have a story about seagulls.  My friends watched a seagull sit on the roof of a house and take a burger off the grill while they guy cooking went into the house for a minute. He thought someone was playing a trick and when he went back in the house, the gull swooped down and grabbed another burger.

Another guy on the beach said his friend was eating a grinder (or hero) sandwich, turned his head and a gull swooped in and took the sandwich right out of his hands.  It was heavy and the gull had a hard time gaining altitude.  The guy almost got the sandwich back.  Almost. 

One day we were on the beach and another guy fell asleep with his mouth open.  His friends put a potato chip in his open mouth and a seagull swooped down and grabbed the chip.  He was so startled, he jumped up and everyone near him on the beach was laughing!  Except him.  Nice friends!

We watch the fishing boats come in every morning and you can see when they have a big catch or are cleaning fish by the amount of seagulls flying behind the boats. 

And while people shoo them away, shout expletives at them and kids chase them away on the beach, I smile, sometimes laugh, and grab my camera.