It was Friday midday and I was down the waterfront at Oamaru killing time while Nigel had a work-related meeting in a cafe in town. I got out my Panasonic Lumix camera to take a photo of the sea when I saw that this gull further down the railing was sidling quickly toward me along the rail, closer and closer. He/she was rather sweet and unafraid so I aimed the camera toward it and got three shots before it decided to fly off. Oamaru, Waitaki, New Zealand. 24 July 2020.
Click on any photo below to enlarge
Text and photos by Liz; Exploring Colour (2020)
Nice of the gull to give you a photo shoot, Liz! I love that last image with his foot up… what to do next?
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Yes.. I confess the last one is my favourite!
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Decades ago, after relocating to tiny Rhode Island, I became familiar with the ever present birds called Seagulls. It was many years later during a beach trip in Newport with my young children, as we were watching and discussing the antics of the seagulls that we were corrected by an irate birder. He rather huffily informed us that “seagull” is a colloquial expression and a misnomer as there was no such bird! I learn from my mistakes, as did the children, and have ever since called them only gulls. Your photos remind me of the gulls that are often seen here in the “Ocean State”, as Rhode Island is also known, named the Herring Gull. They are terrors when one is snacking on the beach or dining at the outdoor eateries there, as we soon discovered, the gulls swoop down and confiscate entire sandwiches and other foods out of a hand and off a plate. If one is wise, one will throw some french fries to distract them, then eat quickly and attentively! Thank-you for another happy walk down memory lane that was unearthed by this lovely post.
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I smiled as I read your story Ellen. I always called them seagulls until I saw that some people on blogs/twitter are annoyed by the use of that term and I switched to the use of ‘gull’.
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A Gull is like the Rodney Dangerfield of birds, ‘get no respect’ but one of the best photo subjects. Very nice.
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Thank you! I looked him up on Wikipedia: “He later quipped that he was so little known when he gave up show business that ‘at the time I quit, I was the only one who knew I quit.'” I like his humour 🙂
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He was a classic comedian. Played small clubs, then big ones in Las Vega, and of course TV. Saw him a few times when I lived in NYC. Oh, and made a few movies too.
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Wonder if it was hoping that you had some food?
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Most likely! It was a nice quiet gull – probably because there weren’t any others nearby at the time!
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It’s doing a good job for gull PR!.
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