The Seagull King
I’ve been watching seagulls for a long time. I first started watching them in a parking lot at a Stop ‘n’ Shop in Hudson, Mass., miles from any ocean.
“Why on earth are there so many seagulls here?” I wondered. (Better chow?)
To make a long story short, I spent a good couple of hours the other day at the beach in New Hampshire watching seagulls being seagulls.
I don’t pretend to be an expert on them (seagulls) or on too many other things and although I was trained to be an expert on human behavior, I do find seagulls almost as interesting.
In the batch of seagulls the other day, there was one in particular who was most decidedly the King of the crop. If any one of the group so much as snatched a potato chip or a piece of bread first, he squawked loudly. He was larger, fatter, and faster than the others. (He reminded me of a boss I once had.)
My companion, a writer too, who has also written about gulls, was attempting to teach this bunch how to act nicely for their treat(s) and this one…King of the Gulls, did not like it. He certainly was not Jonathan Livingston Seagull. He was more the Godfather type, like Marlon Brando and there wasn’t any doubt…this gull was Boss.
I wonder, are people and animals, including birds, born with a certain bent, or do they develop a persona, élan maybe, or a kind of style…all on their own? I wonder.
Was this gull better than the others? Top of the heap! King of the road! Or was he just another spoiled beach bird?
It must be hard to develop a personality as a seagull. Then again, how many people would even notice, if you (as a Seagull) weren’t so unique?
—Nancy Roberts, Warren Avenue
