Some time ago, Arne Adolfsen posted on Facebook about seagulls in Chicamauga GA, well inland. Commenters noted that, amomg other things, gulls were attracted to garbage dumps (and other places where edibles were to be found).
I then realized that though gulls were easily found a few miles away from my house — which is close to the San Francisco Bay and not far from the ocean — I didn’t see them in my neighborhood. (Gulls are large and noisy, so they’d be hard to miss.)
But we do have large and noticeable birds.
We also have a great many small and insignificant birds, some of which sing sweetly, especially in the mornings. Twitter, twitter.
But then there are larger and more noticeable birds, starting with mourning doves (which coo in the mornings). And of course pigeons, which are everywhere. And jays, aggressive and noisy. And especially crows, which seem to have multiplied locally recently: very very noisy, and they congregate in packs (technically known as murders, for you fans of terms of venery). But gulls, no. (As with jays, there are several species, but I’m lumping them together here.)
So: gulls in Chickamauga, but not (apparently) downtown Palo Alto.
April 6, 2014 at 7:29 am |
I see them flying *over* my house here in Santa Cruz, and one time when I went in the back yard and saw two sardines on the sidewalk my best guess was that a seagull must have dropped them.
April 7, 2014 at 2:03 am |
Two sardines on the sidewalk: lovely image.
April 6, 2014 at 9:08 am |
Didn’t gulls famously (or at least legendarily) save the early Mo
rmon settlement at Salt Lake by appearing and devouring the locusts?
April 7, 2014 at 2:02 am |
Yes, famously. So it makes sense to talk about gulls, rather than seagulls. Gulls range over territory beyond the seashores.