11 Jun 2015

And Then Easy Food….

Sorry, this is another boring bird story.

Whilst walking along the seafront of a small seaside town, we witnessed something I've heard of quite a few times but never seen and today I done gone and seen it.

Along the sea front, leading to the boat landings, there was a parade of small stalls selling traditional English seaside food. You know the sort of things I mean; burgers, hot-dogs, doughnuts, slices of pizza an' stuff like that. One stall, just one, towards the end, was serving shellfish and peeled prawns supposedly landed by the local boats, boats that looked like it'd been many years since they'd had their bottoms wet but never mind that.

As we approached these stalls a lady was just moving off with her purchase of a plastic pot of peeled prawns when, out of nowhere, a huge, and I do mean huge, seagull swooped down and flapped and squawked right in the poor ladies face. It then took a mighty nip with his savage looking beak at her hand holding the prawn pot causing her to, unsurprisingly, drop said pot o' prawns.

As the pot hit the deck, decanting prawns hither and thither, the gull was down and at 'em. He was joined, in a heartbeat, by another two gulls and the prawns were hoovered up and they were gone before the poor ladies shocked husband could raise his foot anywhere near an angry kicking position.

I don't, as a rule, laugh at the misfortunes of others, but this was funny as hell.

Amazing, and for the gulls I'm guessing it beats having to repeatedly dive into the cold, unforgiving North Sea for their food. Never mind the effort involved for them to boil and peel the prawns and add seasoning to taste.

Quote;  Ambrose Bierce.

"Magpie, n.: A bird whose theivish disposition suggested to someone that it might be taught to talk."

4 comments:

A K Haart said...

A few years ago my wife was holding a bar of chocolate fudge and a seagull swooped down and took a bite out of it. Sometimes they must think it worth the risk - or maybe they know it is.

Mac said...

A K Haart,
I remember, as I’m sure you do, back in the day when litter bins were open topped.
Every morning, cunningly timed to beat the bin-men, you could watch crows and gulls standing atop these bins throwing out the trash to get at any morsels of food.
Seems they observed us humans evolving from hunter gathers to purchasers and discarders and adapted accordingly.

Caratacus said...

Don't know if you've seen this little gem. The b*ggers have shifted their sights from the bins directly to the shops now ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aQIV3881Pw

Mac said...

Caratacus,
Love it!
How long before they join us, complete with trolly, wandering round the supermarkets?
Then what? In the queue for coffee at Costa?