GULL GRATITUDE

As the blog suggests, I love animals and have been a rescuer of all things furry and feathered and even some with scales, or not.

I’ve rescued and sometimes successfully rehabilitated kingfishers, sparrows, hawks, owls, albatrosses, gannets and swallows, inter alia. All were interesting, but the seagull was the most unusual.

A beautiful pastiche of soft grey and white feathers, it had a dark bill and legs, hence a juvenile.

A friend had rung me earlier to say there was an injured seagull on the beach.

It was immediately apparent that it had become entangled in fishing line and looked a sorry sight with its wings trapped at its sides.

After a short stay in a dark box – to settle it down – I fed it some pilchards.

A fish-hook caught in the shoulder muscle had been there some time as the wound had healed around it.

After carefully removing the hook, I unwound the fishing line that had bound the wings so tightly. The gull lay quietly on my lap for the duration of the procedure.  It seemed to know it was being helped.

Another rest and feed and a testing of the wings (holding the body whilst letting it flap its wings), and it was time for release. I knew it would take a day or two before it could fly properly, but as it had come from a safe beach and had a crop-full of the cat’s fish, it would not be an issue releasing it close to the water where it could bathe and get rid of any lice that may have made their way onto it, as well as, hopefully, finding something to eat now that it was more mobile.

The release was to prove the only problem.

It refused to leave its perch, clinging determinedly to my hand with its paddle feet. I had to lift it off and place it on the sand

It was a relief seeing it finally scuttle off and head for the water. I wished it ‘bon voyage’ and a good life as it blended with the other gulls.

But, wait, that’s not all, there’s more!

Two days later, a juvenile gull landed on my back fence and sat there until I went out and greeted it. It allowed me to approach very closely, cocked its head, and, then, after a long eye-balling, flew off.

The same gull? Who knows? What I can say is that no other gull had done that before – they don’t come into my yard, courtesy of Bonnie, the Killer Maltese – and no gull has done so since.

I believe all animals are much smarter than we give them credit for. And, who's to say gulls can’t have grateful hearts! I like to think he/she came to say, “I’m okay, and by the way, thanks!”