Are English Sea gulls' misogynists?
I really should call these sea gulls Cornish, as the following incidents happened in the picturesque seaside town of St Ives. But the gulls could have come from anywhere, and I don’t want the people of Cornwall believing I am prejudiced against Cornish wildlife.
Sea Gulls have become quite aggressive in their quest for food, and I believe the authorities in St Ives have made it illegal to feed them. However, this restriction was not in force when we were there a few years back.
Cornwall is famous for its Cornish pasties, so my wife and I decided to eat our pasties sitting on the beach in the Cornish sunshine.
After a few minutes, our peaceful picnic was disturbed by a squawking gull swooping down on my wife. Fortunately, the noise it made alerted my wife to the airborne attack, and she was able to remove her pasties from the bird’s flight path. However, although the gull was denied its lunch, it did give my wife, a light knock on the head when it flew away. Although she was glad she had managed to save her lunch, she did ask why the bird had chosen her and not me? A pure coincidence, I told her.
The next incident was, from a gull’s point of view, more successful.
On this occasion we were eating ice cream cornets. (Cornwall also makes delicious ice cream, you really should go there.) We were enjoying these treats while walking on a pier with a wooden railing running along the side of the pier.
On this rail a very vocal sea gull was squawking and looking at my wife, or more specifically, her ice cream cornet. (I have wondered if it was the same gull who tried to steal her pasty. They all look the same, or am I making a generic racial slur?)
If it was the same gull, it had obviously learned from its previous unsuccessful sortie. This time it attacked just about waste high and was able to make contact with the cornet. Luckily my wife held onto the cone, but the ice cream, strawberry and vanilla I believe, hit the floor. Before I could aim an avenging kick, the gull had taken a mouthful of the ice cream and flew off. Mission accomplished.
All the time this was going on there were several other gulls circling overhead, none of them attacked me or my ice cream cornet.
So, perhaps the Gulls are misogynist after all.
What do you think?
