The dangers of (British) gulls..
By Birding-Aus, on August 2nd, 2015
From the “World Wide Words” newsletter: Reports in British newspapers these past few days have featured the menace from seagulls, particularly in Cornwall. Earlier this month a dog was killed by a seagull in that county and a tortoise died after being flipped over and pecked to death. The birds are brazen in grabbing food from visitors and in doing so have caused injuries. Young people have taken advantage by inventing a game called *gull running*. It’s said to have started in Whitby but has since spread to other seaside towns. One person holds food above their head — usually fish and chips — and runs a set course. The winner is whoever can run the furthest without a seagull grabbing the food. One correspondent to my newspaper was less concerned about the physical injuries the birds can cause than about the purity of language. There are no such things as seagulls, he argued. In the UK there are herring, great black-backed, lesser black-backed, black-headed and common gulls and the kittiwake, but something called a seagull doesn’t exist. A touch pedantic, perhaps? We may be sure it won’t change his view to be told that English has had *seagull* as a popular collective term since medieval times.
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Oh yeah ? Big macs and chiko rolls. —–Original Message—– Sent: Sunday, 2 August 2015 10:46 AM Cc: birding-aus They ate a natural, healthy diet, just as we did.
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Stayed at home and cooked….
There was probably more fish before the advent of fish shops also. John Yours in all things “green” John Harris BASc, GDipEd Director – Wildlife Experiences P/L Principal Zoologist/Ecologist Nature Photographer Wildlife Guide Croydon, Vic 0409 090 955 Past President, Field Naturalists Club of Victoria http://www.fncv.org.au —– Reply message —– Cc: “birding-aus” < birding-aus@birding-aus.org> I wonder what gulls did before the advent of fast food shops?
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No kidding! A month ago I was with a client at Middle Head in Sydney (where the old army barracks have been turned into offices), when I scored a wing in my right ear-hole, and a beak-sized hole in my roast chicken roll. My client wasn’t so lucky – 5 minutes later the kookaburra took 2 thirds of his roll out of his hands and scattered it half-way down the hill… —–Original Message—– Sent: Sunday, 2 August 2015 10:58 AM Perhaps we should introduce a sport called Kookaburra-running, for picnic grounds and camping areas? See how far you can get with a chop-bone? Anthea Fleming
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So, no doubt in time, we can expect the tourist raiding techniques to spread through the world wide Black Kite Gestalt, and end up here, sooner or later. Carl Clifford
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At Tidbinbilla NR outside Canberra the sport in the 1980s used to be Emu-based. It was actually a bit more sedentary than the events in the UK or suggested by Anthea as it merely involved standing round a barbecue and trying to get a snag before the Emu cleared the hotplate. A counterpart occurs in Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. There the challenge is to cross the car park with any item of food in your hand without a Black Kite taking it. Most tourists are advised to eat in the vehicle. We saw one lady become quite upset when a Kite took a chook drumstick out of her hand (also delivering a wing behind the ear to reinforce the lesson). Martin Martin Butterfield http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/
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My daughter Amber and I were attacked by an antilopine wallaroo in a wildlife park near Darwin. We were feeding ducks, and looked up to find ourselves surrounded by half a dozen. One snatched the bag of food out of Amber’s hands and then settle back on its tail ready to attack. I moved between them and told her to walk backwards to the gate while I distracted the roo. The wallaroo then advanced on me but before it could raise its legs I punched it in the nose as hard as I could and fled. I always warn people not to feed kangaroos or other wildlife in their vicinity. Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow PO Box 71 Darwin River, NT, Australia 0841 043 8650 835 PhD candidate, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW. Founding Member: Ecotourism Australia Nominated by Earthfoot for Condé Nast’s International Ecotourism Award, 2004. With every introduction of a plant or animal that goes feral this continent becomes a little less unique, a little less Australian. On 2 Aug 2015, at 10:27 am, brian fleming < flambeau@labyrinth.net.au> wrote:
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They ate a natural, healthy diet, just as we did.
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Perhaps we should introduce a sport called Kookaburra-running, for picnic grounds and camping areas? See how far you can get with a chop-bone? Anthea Fleming
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I wonder what gulls did before the advent of fast food shops?
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I sent a report on that gull misbehaviour to a birder friend in Cornwall. His reply was, that if all those f****g tourists didn’t go around dropping the remnants of their fish & chips and pasties everywhere, and even feeding the buggers, there would not be a problem. It seems that it is a human caused problem. Also, my chum says, ¾ of the stories are bunk. Carl Clifford
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