A SQUABBLE of seagulls ...

My city this evening!

..... at 6.45 this morning!

Hmmm .... us Homo Sapiens ... supposedly top of the food chain ... can be very ‘sheep-like’ in our behaviour sometimes. What Carol and I saw this morning on the beach reminded me of an experiment performed many years ago (and since repeated ad infinitum as a gag) where one person stands shielding their eyes looking up at the sky. It doesn’t take long before that one person is surrounded by many people all trying to see what the first person’s looking at. 

Checking out the log's that pretending to be a whale!

That happened on our beach this morning ... only it wasn’t someone looking at the sky. It was a gentleman walker who was convinced the shape he could see in our bay was a Pilot Whale. As far as we were concerned, Carol and I that is, it was in too shallow waters, stuck between the sandbanks, to be any kind of a whale. We both thought it was a log, the kind that the hound is forever unearthing during her forays into the waves.

A crowd starting to form ...

He was convinced though and before long, had a small crowd gathering on the boardwalk and grass trying to see the ‘whale’. The gentleman concerned waded out into the bay and, despite the distance he had to wade, was still only knee-deep when he reached the ‘whale’. He bent down and moved it and yep .... sure enough .... it was a ‘whale-shaped’ log!

I guess I shouldn’t chuckle ... it was reminiscent of what happened to Julia and I in Ladies Bay when we spotted what we thought could be a person standing out at sea, all submerged except for their head. As regular readers of my blog will know, it turned out to be a young Asian woman trying to commit suicide. 

‘Sheep-like’ behaviour’s visible in so many aspects of life ... take the gulls in my bay for instance. I just need one of them to think I’ve got pellets for them and a whole squabble of seagulls will follow me along the beach ... even if I HAVEN’T got food! Don’t you just love the collective noun for seagulls ... a SQUABBLE ..... so appropriate ... and yep, I googled it!

Fortunately for them I did have food today and they got a ‘meal on the move’ as I walked back down the beach with the hound. They’ve either got very small brains or are incredibly brave as the hound racing through the waves doesn’t deter them from coming after the pellets anymore. There are still the even braver few who’ll take them out of my hand.

I’ve lost count of the number of people who tell me the hound ... and myself .... should be playing for the AB’s. We make a good team ... I kick .... she catches, or retrieves .... and she seldom drops it. One gentleman, on a ramble with his wife, asked if he could kick the ball for the hound .... she was delighted .... she loves it when strangers want to play with her! I think he enjoyed it just as much as her - it ended up being a lot more than just one kick ... I think, if he could have, he’d have stayed on the beach all day with her!

The hound makes people smile ... winter times on the beach mean she can stay on the sand whilst we have our coffee. I get to see people’s faces as they amble along the boardwalk and see her digging her trenches or burying her ball... and I get to see them smile and they often stop to chat. She adds happiness to so many people’s lives without us even being aware of it ... long may her love affair with her rugby ball and the waves continue!!