I do love you little gulls, but today you were all dumb as dodos and did not waterproof your feathers enough before taking a dip!
Joey on life guard duty this morning, fishing out nearly a dozen of the sorry sodden birds.... tragically too late for one unlucky sunken fledgling...
Going past the civic centre pond, i saw the usual group of this-years gull chicks having a swim. But something was very wrong indeed.
They were all 2/3rds underwater, swimming very slowly and some even struggled to keep their heads above water.
I
have seen this before and knew exactly that all a dozen or so of them
were severely waterlogged and quickly going under. I have seen two
drownings of gulls in this pond, including one of the youngsters today
who I was too late to save.
With no one around
with the mind to help tthem, or perhaps unaware of the terrible events
unfolding, i was their only hope. Luckily most were skirting the edge,
unable to fly out over the rim. I was able to be quick, corner many and
reach in on my hands and knees to fish them out one by one. I managed to
fish out 8 - 9 or so, the remaining couple seemed ok in the middle of
the pond.
The rescued survivors. cold wet and shivering, dried
themslevs and shook vigorously on the grass to shake off all the water
and proceeded to preen.
Normally seagull preen
themsele with an oil that waterproofs their feathers. These juveniles
were either too inexperiences or still not quite developed enough to
face the pond, with no way out other than to fly up. These guys are very
lucky to have lived, and hopefull this is a lesson that won't be
repeated any time soon!
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