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I like seagulls. When I lived in St. Petersburg FL. many years ago, I would buy french fries at the McDonald's across the street from the beach and sit outside at the table, holding the fries overhead. It wouldn't be long before seagulls would hover over me and take the fries from my hand. I got nipped on the finger sometimes, but it was fun.
The ones along the NC coast nest on uninhabited barrier islands where you can see dozens and dozens late in the evening, or back in the marshes.
I've never seen a baby gull either, except on film.
They must grow to juvenile size quickly so they can search for food and learn to fly before late autumn and winter. Most of the juveniles have brownish feathers.
Sorry it's been so long since I posted. The heat here is ridiculous. The only times I really get to see the chicks is early morning before the sun swings round and then they really aren't doing anything. And I still haven't gotten a cord for my camera - at $20, I think I'll have to wait till the August 1st on that one.
We're supposed to have 3 or 4 more insanely hot (for this area anyway) days and then when it cools down, I can make some more observations.
Right now I can tell you that the chicks have grown - a lot! They're almost as big as their parents right now. I saw the two on the top roof flap their wings for the first time this morning. They can't fly, but they can augment running across the top of the building with a little wing power.
I haven't seen the chick on the lower roof for about a week now, but as I said, it's been hot and when it's hot, they stay in the shade. With their color, they sort of blend into the shadows and there's lots of machinery on that roof. I'll keep an eye out for him, though.
OK, the little chick on the lower building is still there. I saw him yesterday and again today. He's growing like a weed, so Mama is taking good care of him. In the past, the adult gulls have made it a point to sit on the wall surrounding the roof while watching their chicks. But I've noticed this year, at least one gull is always on the edge of the building overlooking the lower roof. So they are watching.
I do know they can recognize the cries of their chicks, too. As I said, every building around here has a gull nest on it. One year while the chicks were learning to fly, one of them managed to fly onto the lower roof where the baby chick is now. He came from a nest from somewhere else and apparently couldn't figure out how to fly back home.
Late that evening we had a storm with a ton of rain. I could hear the little chick calling (their "MOM!" cries are very distinctive) and I looked out the window and there he was, in the pouring rain, calling for his mom. I felt so sorry for him, but in less than 30 seconds, Mom had flown over and was fussing over him. I never did find out what nest he came from and the next day he was able to spread his wings and fly off.
Today I got some more pics of the three chicks. It's a finally cooler and overcast YAY!, so naturally, they're now huddled out of the wind. There's no winning with the weather here! It's overcast, too, so this afternoon maybe I can get some more pics of them. I plan to go down to Best Buy on Thursday or Friday when I go running around to pay Comcast and other bills, so I can get a cord to upload pics.
Our building is also having the plaster around the windows repainted, starting this week. So you may also get treated to pics of painters who are right outside my window as well.
Last edited by rodentraiser; 07-31-2018 at 10:49 AM..
Thanks for clearing this up! I always wondered where seagulls nest, and had never seen a baby. Nor do I ever see them eat anything but human cast-offs. Do they dive-bomb the waves for fish? Never seen that.
We have NONE here, surprisingly. They might like the millions of little red crabs that patrol the sand, but get preyed on by nothing. We only have frigate birds that never land. And vultures, for clean-up! Kinda miss the ubiquitous sea gull.
They eat anything. We have signs all over the place saying to not feed the gulls, but the tourists ignore them (I do, too). In the summer, the gulls follow the ferries back and forth from Seattle. If I was sitting inside, I could look out the window and see a whole flock flying right next to me, catching the popcorn people were throwing off the top deck for them.
One nice thing about riding the ferries - do it often enough and you see just about everything. Besides the seagulls, I've seen seals in the water (and they're always sitting on the buoys on nice days), jellyfish in the water at the terminals, and even a couple orca pods. The ferry captains can see a pod on radar and sometimes will idle the ferry or sort of maneuver a little closer so people can see them. Usually they do this on days when I really needed to be at work on time.
For some reason, they're screaming now as I type this and I don't know why. I know they look for food in the early mornings, but maybe they're looking now, too, since the chicks have to be fed more. Yesterday it cleared up and got hot, so I didn't bother to open my blinds again, but we are now entering a week of cooler weather, so hopefully I will have more info and more pics.
By the way, their nests really don't seem to be very well made, just a few sticks and stuff thrown down in a corner of the roof. But it's hard to tell from where I'm at, so maybe the nest are larger.
I wish I had found this forum when the raccoons were showing up at my old place where I live. I watched Mama bring up two litters and one of her kits from the first litter brought up her two kits while I was living there. I got lots of videos and pictures of them over the four years I lived there. If anyone is interested, they're on Photobucket. I used to turn my hose on in the yard and I would have four kits playing in the water. And playing with my hose sprayer. They played with that like a dog plays with a toy.
To see those pics, you just have to go to photobucket.com/rodentraiser and then scroll down to the Raccoons folder. I'd upload those pics here, but PB wants to charge me for my accessing my own photos now.
They eat anything. We have signs all over the place saying to not feed the gulls, but the tourists ignore them (I do, too). In the summer, the gulls follow the ferries back and forth from Seattle. If I was sitting inside, I could look out the window and see a whole flock flying right next to me, catching the popcorn people were throwing off the top deck for them.
One nice thing about riding the ferries - do it often enough and you see just about everything. Besides the seagulls, I've seen seals in the water (and they're always sitting on the buoys on nice days), jellyfish in the water at the terminals, and even a couple orca pods. The ferry captains can see a pod on radar and sometimes will idle the ferry or sort of maneuver a little closer so people can see them. Usually they do this on days when I really needed to be at work on time.
For some reason, they're screaming now as I type this and I don't know why. I know they look for food in the early mornings, but maybe they're looking now, too, since the chicks have to be fed more. Yesterday it cleared up and got hot, so I didn't bother to open my blinds again, but we are now entering a week of cooler weather, so hopefully I will have more info and more pics.
By the way, their nests really don't seem to be very well made, just a few sticks and stuff thrown down in a corner of the roof. But it's hard to tell from where I'm at, so maybe the nest are larger.
I wish I had found this forum when the raccoons were showing up at my old place where I live. I watched Mama bring up two litters and one of her kits from the first litter brought up her two kits while I was living there. I got lots of videos and pictures of them over the four years I lived there. If anyone is interested, they're on Photobucket. I used to turn my hose on in the yard and I would have four kits playing in the water. And playing with my hose sprayer. They played with that like a dog plays with a toy.
To see those pics, you just have to go to photobucket.com/rodentraiser and then scroll down to the Raccoons folder. I'd upload those pics here, but PB wants to charge me for my accessing my own photos now.
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