Tag: Wildlife

Hey, I haven’t blogged about seagulls in a while, have I?

I was off for the first week of July. When I came back on the 9^th, I found the nest on the cathedral tower had ben abandoned. My theory—shared by my neighbour, who’d also been keeping an eye on the birdies—was that the metal surface on which the nest was built just got too hot, and the chicks cooked. (Yeah, it’s not always survival of the fittest. Sometimes it comes down to dumb luck.) A gull came by every now and then for a week or so… was it a parent? Do they remember their babies, and grieve? Come to think of it, I’m glad I wasn’t there to see it.

The family at 650 Richards is doing great, though. Huey, Louie and Dewey (or should that be Athos, Porthos and Aramis? Gaspar, Melchior and Balthazar?) have a whole roof to explore, with a good mix of sun and shade provided by the chimney and the surrounding buildings. For example, at this time of year our own building’s shadow falls on that roof between 10AM and a little past noon. For most of the afternoon, though, there’s no shade but the chimney, and that’s where they spend their time. Which just supports the “cooking on a hot metal surface” theory. It looks like seagull chicks are a lot more sensitive to heat than cold and rain: they’ll generally avoid direct sunlight, but wet weather doesn’t seem to bother them much.

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing the adults feeding them. This one time a couple weeks ago, the mommy/daddy just spit up a glistening chunk of half-digested fish half the size of the baby’s head, which the little darling just scarfed right down. Yummy! I noted that the other two didn’t pester the adult for food that time. And later, I noticed one of them was quite a bit smaller than the others. Being polite doesn’t pay in a gull’s world! The runt kept its baby colours (light brown with darker brown spots) for longer too, while its siblings grew a nicer light grey and white coat (now followed by plain medium brown feathers on their wings). Though as of now their heads are still spotted brown.

The chicks are big now, as big as crows. In the early days, there’d always be one parent standing guard nearby while another hunted, but now the chicks are mostly left alone. That’s okay, I’m sure they can take care of themselves now, and the parents must be working full time to feed their hungry maws. And holy shit, their wings have gotten huge in the last few days! They almost have adult proportions. Still can’t fly, though: the best they can do is a flapping run. I guess their muscles are still too weak, or their flight feathers still haven’t grown in.

But ah, my babies are growing up. Soon, I expect the parents will come by less and less and they’ll start fishing for themselves. And will they remember their nursery? Maybe one of them will build another nest on the same spot next year, and complete the circle of life. Or they’ll get eaten by a bald eagle. That’s another circle.

And I hope they stay away from the bell towers. Those places are deathtraps.

They’re here! They’re here! The eggs on the bell tower have hatched sometime last night, and the nest is now home to three adorable seagull chicks.

Bell tower? Yep: in the last couple of weeks I noticed another seagull nest, built on the southwest corner of the Cathedral’s taller bell tower. But since it’s almost exactly at eye level with my work, I couldn’t see the eggs.

However, I could see the eggs at 650 Richards. Most of the time a gull was sitting on the nest, but I was lucky enough to catch them switching off. Yes, apparently seagull parents take turns sitting on the eggs. That surprised me, though in hindsight it shouldn’t have. I’d just assumed (sexist me!) that the female sat, and the male went off hunting and fed her. Just because I’d never seen him do it was not evidence against my theory.

So that was on the 11^th, the day after my last seagull entry. I saw them switching, grabbed the binoculars, and briefly gazed in wonder upon three dark greenish-grey eggs, blending in wonderfully with the earth/moss nest. Without binoculars, I would probably have missed them, and definitely couldn’t have counted them.

And then… I waited. A couple times I saw them switch, or the sitting parent would get up to stretch its legs a bit, and I’d confirm that, yep, three eggs. Still not hatched. A few times I saw the gull pick at the nest, rearranging the mossy bits. Damn, how boring must it be if even the seagulls get antsy? Then again, they would get easily bored, wouldn’t they? They’re creatures of wide open spaces, surrounded by dozens of their fellows all the time. Must be hard to just… sit.

Wednesday, June 13^th: a half-dozen gulls drove off an eagle. It was majestically soaring higher than the tallest skyscrapers, higher than seagulls normally fly, but it was still too close for comfort.

Wednesday, June 20^th: hey, it’s panting. A panting seagull, how about that? But I guess it’s boiling, sitting like that in full sunlight. And since birds don’t sweat, it’s got to bleed off its excess heat somehow. Makes sense, right? Yet one more thing I never thought about.

As of today the first clutch of eggs haven’t hatched (I assume, since they’re still being sat on). But that’s okay, because I’m being wildly entertained by the tower chicks. Again, I need binoculars to see them because their down is a dark mottled grey-brown, excellent camouflage. And they’re surprisingly mobile for their age. I’d imagined bald little chicks, nothing but huge open beaks constantly begging for food from mama. But these kids are happily waddling along, exploring their home (all three square feet of it), occasionally begging for food, but mostly just… being babies, y’know? Walking around, looking around, preening their down, bumping into things and each other, always watched by one or more parents. They’re not quite alike, which is also interesting: it looks like one is quite a bit darker than its siblings. Natural selection at work. The ones who blend it best with their surroundings are less likely to be eaten.

A few times a chick would try to fly. Props for already having the right instincts, but it just amounted to them hopping up and down while flapping their useless little wings. Still, I laughed out loud because OMG SO CUTE!!!!!

Now I can’t wait to see them really learn to fly. In fact I’m tempted to buy a telephoto lens just for that.

Well, that answers that question.

A couple of weeks ago I wondered where the two gulls would settle down. Turns out they settled down right on the roof where they consummated their union. At least I assume it’s the same couple—not to sound speciesist or anything, but seagulls all kind of look alike to me.

So on Monday, they were tearing up bits of the moss growing on the roof (I’m almost positive it’s 650 Richards St, one of the buildings adjunct to the Holy Rosary Cathedral) to make a dandy little nest right next to the chimney, affording them a bit of shelter against the wind and the rain. They needed it, too, because the weather this week has been pretty bad for the season.

The female (I assume it’s the female) has spent all her time in the nest, moving only to change direction or readjust her butt. The male spends most of his time away, probably hunting. Since the female isn’t getting her own food the male must be feeding her but I’ve yet to see it. It might just be happening a couple of times a day, when I’m not at work. When he is nearby, he usually stands on the chimney or at the edge of the roof looking around, hardly ever getting close to the nest. Interesting. I’d expected more… maybe not affection, but at least contact from time to time. But there you go, that’s just mammalian bias.

On Tuesday the male fought off a crow, who’d probably seen the nest and came looking for eggs. It was a gorgeous aerial battle, with the black bird and the white bird swooping around and snapping at each other for a few minutes. And you know, seagulls are pretty darn nimble. They don’t usually need to be, but the buggers can turn on a dime with just little twitches of their great big wings.

The male stayed near the nest for a couple of hours after that, obviously on high alert, but there were no more marauding crows. I noticed he was picking at its right wing a lot. At first I thought he might be injured, but it looked like he was just preening his feathers. What would happen if it were injured, though? Could the female make it as a single mom?

I don’t know, but she probably wouldn’t need to. On Friday the male was in another fight, this time with another seagull. He got to keep his territory (such as it was) but it made me wonder: what if it had lost? Was the other male (I assume it was a male) making a play just for the real estate or the female as well? And if the latter, would it destroy the eggs as soon as she laid them and force her to mate with him? Other species do this. It’s nasty, but it makes perfect sense from a natural selection perspective. No sense in spending energy raising chicks that don’t carry your genetic code.

I don’t know if the female has started laying eggs yet. I’ll bring binoculars tomorrow.

Heh. Well, it’s that time of year. They were on a roof, across the street and a few storeys below my window. The male was sitting on top of the female for a couple of minutes after a co-worker pointed them out. Just… sitting there. Not moving, no bamp-chicka-bamp music. Then he flapped his wings a bit, and the female scooted out from under him. They hung around the roof for a couple of hours. Frankly I was a bit disappointed, but I assume they enjoyed it, and that’s what counts, right?

I wonder where they’re going to build their nest. Gulls traditionally build them along the coast, right? Then again, the water is just a short hop from downtown in three out of four directions. Wherever they settle down, I wish them luck.

PS: it looked like the male was a bit larger than the female, and its wings a bit darker grey. Interesting. I never thought there was any sexual dimorphism in gulls, but there you go.