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As soon as the sun was down last night, I was belting off to go get pizza, so I never did see the chicks. But this morning, I'm still seeing only one chick on the upper roof and one on the lower roof. It's supposed to be cooler today, so I'll keep a closer eye on them.
Well, it's official. There's only one chick on the upper roof now and still only the one chick on the lower roof. I don't know what could have happened to the other chick on the upper roof.
I thought the upper roof was walled off on three sides, but I can't really see the third side from my room. So it could be the other chick fell off into the alley. Or he might have managed to flap his wings, get up on the wall, and fall off one of the other two sides, either in front of the building or on the roof of the building to the other side.
If he fell off in front or back, that's a long way down. I also don't notice either of the two parents swooping down like they were taking care of him.
The remaining chick on the top roof seems to be depressed. He's spending a lot of time just huddled up against the wall. The chick on the lower roof is walking around all over the place. I saw Mom feeding him this morning, so he's still being cared for.
One interesting thing I've noticed is that in the past, when any other gulls have landed on the roof or the wall surrounding it, the parents promptly chase them away. However now, I've been seeing several other gulls who sit alongside the parents and follow them around on the roof. The parents don't chase these guys off. I wonder if these are chicks from previous nests coming back to visit their parents and their old home.
For some reason, I've always assumed that the same parents nest in the same place every year, even if it's not every year in a row.
So far the chick tally is:
1st year - 3 chicks
2nd year - 2 chicks
3rd year - parents nested somewhere else
4th year - 1 chick. He got ALL the attention!
5th year - parents nested somewhere else
This year - 3 chicks and it's the first time I've seen any chick fall off the roof. To have two fall off in one year is really strange.
The two chicks are getting bigger and I see the one on the lower roof every day. So far there's been wing flapping (always before I can get a pic in), but no real flying as yet. Of course, now the weather is freezing cold. A couple days ago at this time, it was almost 80°. Today it's only 65° and I might close my window and turn my heat on. Needless to say, the chicks are huddled up against a wall in this weather and really not doing anything.
The chicks are vegetating on the roofs of the two buildings. I still haven't seen the third chick, but yesterday I drove out and a dead seagull chick was in the middle of the road. As they can't fly yet, maybe he couldn't get out of the way fast enough.
It was quite aways away from the building across the street, so I doubt if it's "my" missing chick, especially since every building around here has a seagull nest on it.
Now it's turning warm again and we still have smoke laying like a fog all over the city. Someone told me the air here was rated worse then in Beijing! LOL
I still haven't seen a lot of wing flapping going on, but when they start doing that on a regular basis, I'll take some more pics.
I don't believe this. I looked out my window this morning and there were two - TWO - chicks on the upper roof. I took a picture just so I could look at it later and not think I was losing my mind.
There are a couple possibilities here. One: the chick from the lower roof flew up. Or two: a chick from the higher building across the alley fell off and managed to flap his wings enough to land on the upper roof. That makes more sense, since when I saw the chicks this morning, they were far apart from each other instead of cuddling together like they used to when it was cool. Plus, I heard a huge to-do last night from across the street. It sounded like a bird of prey was out there screaming. I was on the phone and excused myself to see what was going on, but I couldn't see anything at the time because it was too dark.
I'll get the pics posted later today, after I watch some more this afternoon and see what's going on. I just not popped my head out the window and I can't see any chicks.
Yes, I know people think they're the trash of the bird world, but I like watching animals and right now, seagulls are all I have to watch.
Across the street from my 4th floor window is a two-story building with a flat roof. Beyond that, right next to it, is a three-story building with a flat roof and a two foot wall that goes around the roof on three sides. There is a door in the three-story building that opens out to the roof of the two-story building where all the machinery is and there is a pool ladder that goes from the two-story building up the side of the three-story building so the top there can be accessed.
All of our downtown building have flat roofs and the seagulls nest on every one of them. Some years they don't show up. Last year there were no seagulls around, but this year every building has a seagull pair and a nest on it.
Across the street on the three-story building, two seagulls have a nest. The babies are now running around on the top of the building and chasing after their parents every time one of the older gulls lands on the roof. They're growing and hungry.
For the longest time, I couldn't tell how many seagull chicks were there. Sometimes I'd count 2, then I'd swear I saw 3. Yesterday I could see there were definitely only 2 chicks. BUT...as I watched, I saw another chick on the roof below, on the two-story building. I've never seen any seagulls nest there, maybe because there's too many people out servicing the equipment.
But there he was, one little seagull chick all by his lonesome. He must have fallen from the building roof above. I'm surprised he was still alive - that's about a 9 or 10 foot fall. Anyway, I was sitting here watching him and considering reuniting him with his family (I had no idea how I would do that), when Mama landed and started feeding him. So as she's taking care of him, I'll stay out of it.
The only thing I worry about now is the cooler weather. We had a hot spell, but there's plenty of shade on the buildings from the machinery for the little chick to get out of the sun. But now that the weather has cooled off again, he won't have anyone to keep him warm at night. I've noticed the other two chicks in their nest above will nestle together when it's cold and one of the parent's will sit with them.
Anyway, I'll keep an eye on them and if anyone is interested, I'll update this thread as the chicks grow up and learn to fly.
Nope, not me seagulls are awesome! Anyone who doesn't agree is stupid, IMHO!
gulls are quite vicious.... some of my earliest childhood memories are seagulls eating baby ducks...… they are very territorial driving off other gulls......always bickering... but they tolerate pigeons.....dont know why but they do and also crows.... ive seen gulls go after a crow with a bad wing ...and the other crows came to that ones crows defense....and saved it..…
I'm sorry I haven't posted for a while, but to be honest, I really haven't seen any seagull chicks at all for almost a week.
In the mornings it's not unusual to not see the chicks. They come out in the sun in the afternoon unless it's too hot, then they stay in the shade.
But we've been having cold mornings and hot afternoons, which means the chicks are huddling somewhere in the morning and in the shade in the afternoon. I think. But in the evenings and at times like now, when it's warm but not too hot, the chicks should be out sunning themselves. And I don't see them anywhere.
Now, it could be they've learned to fly and have gone off hunting for food with their parents, but usually that involves about a week of flapping wings and flying up to sit on the wall surrounding the roof, and another week of short flights across the roof. Then they fly around above the roof for a while, not getting too far from home. They were barely flapping wings the last time I saw them.
On top of everything else, most of the gulls around here mature at the same rate, so if I see one flapping and flying up on the walls, all the gulls are doing that. All of a sudden one morning I'll wake up and there will be dark sea gulls sitting on every wall surround all the roofs that I can see from my window. And I haven't seen that, either. So something is going on.
Anyway, the first three pics are of the chick chilling on the lower roof. The fourth pic is of the chick in the nest on the upper roof. Those I took about a week ago.
The last pic is of the nest on the upper roof and it looks like - although I can't be sure - that there is a chick there. If it is, I wonder if he's sick, because he's been in that nest like that every time I've looked at it for the last four days or so. You guys can tell me what you think.
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