Seagulls. Rats with wings. One of the beaches most hated creatures. Beach goers are constantly complaining, shooing them away, hope they don't get shit on as the seagulls fly overhead. But I don't hate the gulls. I think they are beautiful. To me, sea gulls signify the beach which is my favorite place in the whole world.
The gulls are pretty damn clever too. They fly around and scope out the blankets, waiting for the opportune moment to grab a snack. Last year a group of people were laying on the beach fairly close to us and one of the guys fell asleep with his mouth open. His buddy thought it would be fun to put a tortilla chip in his mouth. Within less than a minute, a huge seagull swooped down and took the chip out of the sleeping man's mouth, waking him up with a start. I'm not sure if he is still friends with his buddy!
This year, a group of 4 were swimming and left two bags of chips on their blanket. One seagull came over and began trying to get at the Doritos. A few of us nearby chased it away. It didn't work. He came back with several of his friends and soon there was a flock of seagulls attacking the bag of Doritos. One got daring and grabbed a sandwich wrapped in aluminum foil. I was amazed to see how quickly and deftly he got it open and devoured the sandwich. It just goes to show, don't leave open food lying on the beach. Packaged or wrapped food isn't safe from these birds if it's just sitting out on a blanket. One even came and swiped a piece of sandwich from a woman's hand while she was holding it, but looking away, talking to her friend! These gulls really have a knack for finding food!
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| Don't shit on me! |
Wow, they are intimidating birds, but cool looking. I once had a pigeon land on a sandwich at the campus of University of Hawaii! They are aggressive birds. We have small finches at our beach. I think they're finches?? http://www.mauijungalow.com/2012/12/black-and-white-birds-at-beach.html
ReplyDeleteAlso I heard on the radio that birds actually can recognize people's faces! So if they poop on your blanket or hat, they know who you are.
That's cool that they eat out of your hands, I haven't seen them do that here - the seagulls get pretty daring though - Saw your post, not sure if they are finches or not, we have gold finches here.
DeleteThat sounds like a commercial for how irresistible Doritos are. !!! :)
ReplyDeleteLOL - the Doritos were what was laying out - one also got a sandwich wrapped in foil, and if the people didn't come back, there was a bag of lays sour cream and onion chips that would have been next!
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