Seagulls revenge
I suppose there is a sort of karma about it, but on my last day in Vancouver I was mugged by a herring gull. I had got into the habit of buying a coffee and some sort of bread thing in the food market for my breakfast, and then having a wander around as I ate. On this occasion I had bought a slab of grape and pine-nut bread and walked out onto the boardwalk to eat it on the way to the ferry. I had managed one bite before a seagull flew on over my shoulder and snatched the whole bag from my hand. The whole theft was so adroit and the bread was consumed in seconds, I was left full of admiration for its skill and daring.I guess it might be thought of as payback for an earlier incident when I was rehearsing a show down in Ramsgate, and stood on the harbour walls eating fish and chips. The gulls were begging shamelessly, but if you tossed them a chip it would be too hot, and the catcher would spit it out, only for it to be caught by another. This would continue until the chip cooled down enough for someone down the line to eat it, hours of innocent fun.
Later that day I walked along the coast and sat watching the seaplanes take off and land across False Creek bay, my attention was caught by a gull flying very low and erratically across the water. I realised after a moment that it was being chased by a white tailed sea eagle, and its aerobatics were an attempt to escape from its much larger aggressor. Eventually the sea gull either regurgitated or dropped its food, and the eagle lost interest. Curiously, the gull then turned on the eagle, and with a number of others, chased it away inland.
posted by Lampy @ 1/25/2007 08:44:00 am
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