I am at Shaws, on the wharf
Watching the harbor
Where gulls are swarming a trawler,
Waiting for my number to be called.
A woman, a table away
Exclaims, "A gull!!"
I turn to see a large bird
With a black head, white body
And dark rose-colored bill
Standing on the railing
Overlooking her table.
My first thought is,
That is no ordinary gull.*
With her friends looking on,
She offers it a French fry
Which it snatches and flies off,
But not before I snap,
"Why don't you give it
Some of your fish!"
Moral:
When an unusually beautiful sea bird
Shows up at your table on the wharf
And begs for a hand-out
Don't feed it junk.
Look what it does to us!
.....................................
*Franklin gull. A friend helped me identify the gull I saw in Maine, which is easily confused with a black-headed gull or laughing gull (depicted in the public domain photo, perched on a piling). The Franklin gull has slightly more black in the front, extending down its neck like a bib and the white spot encroaching on the wing is more rounded. A Franklin gull is a prairie-marsh gull and only rarely appears on the coast (east or west). He thought it might have left its native habitat due to development or fire.
(Article changed on Jul 02, 2023 at 7:41 AM EDT)
