The Gull Next Door

_teyd · on July 10, 2021

The main experience I have with gulls is one by one eating up all the ducklings in the canal here in Amsterdam, to the horror of everyone on the terraces.

LargoLasskhyfv · on July 10, 2021

I haven't seen that here so far. Ours (in Hamburg) seem to be more restrained.

What I've seen though on a hot summer day, when a exhausted pigeon splashed down in a canal,

a single large gull swooped down fast from a pole it sat on,

the moment the pigeon touched the water.

And tore it to pieces. Took maybe 3 seconds.

But they are mostly well fed here, from all the people who enjoy their masterful glide,

with most minimal twitches of their wings, 'endfeathers' they use like fingers to feel the air,

almost standing still in the air, while picking off some food from in between someones fingers on an outstretched arm,

or a string of 'bait' laid out on a guardrail,

countless cameras and smartphones catching their moves :-)

justshowpost · on July 10, 2021

> Your obnoxious neighbor or just a misunderstood, displaced seabird?

Neither. Seagulls are natural born opportunists. If they can grab your hamburger or hunt and eat a pigeon – they'll do that. Just the same for landfills or farms.