Seagulls!

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I was waiting in the truck as my wife made an emergency stop at the mall this afternoon, when I noticed something atop nearly every light post in the area. It took me a minute before I realized that they were seagulls. I still haven’t gotten completely used to seeing them here in the Mid-Ohio Valley. It was a rare treat to see them when I was a kid—usually by ones or twos and just after a big storm. I always assumed they’d been blown down from the Great Lakes. I remember going to Lake Erie about 30 years ago and seeing one or two on each lamppost along the highway, like sentinels along the road to a military site.

They’re not a pretty bird when they’re on the ground. In fact, they’re a bit homely to my way of thinking, and their squawking and bickering when afoot reminds me of a woman from my past who shall go unnamed. In the air, though, they’re a thing of beauty. We all have our element, I guess.

As we left the mall, I noticed a flock of about 50 on the front lawn. They’re pretty common anymore, but not that far away from the river. You can hardly take a drive along the river, though, without seeing a raft of them floating somewhere. It seems to me that they float rather high in the water, for they look like bigger birds than they really are when seen from a distance. They must taste horrible, for I’ve never heard of anyone eating one. Fishy, I imagine, like some ducks.

I don’t know if those rare birds from years ago stayed and bred a resident population, a flock was blown down from the Great Lakes and stayed, or if their range has simply expanded gradually up the Mississippi and the Ohio. I would guess the latter, though. Unlike some species, they don’t seem to bring any negatives with them; at least I haven’t heard of any yet. I sort of enjoy seeing them. They seem a bit exotic to me, sort of like the pigeons that used to visit our  country barn on rare occasions from their homes in town. Their presence makes it seem a tiny bit like I’m visiting the beach, but without all the bother. © 2012

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