BS: Not paintballs; rather, it was...

Subject: BS:Confusion in Bar Harbor, Maine
From: maeve
Date: 14 Jul 11 - 03:05 PM

So when you're in Maine along the coast, and your car is splattered with an unidentified substance, what's your first guess as to the source?

Confusion in Bar Harbor, Maine

Subject: RE: BS: Not paintballs; rather, it was...
From: gnu
Date: 14 Jul 11 - 03:28 PM

Gulls here will single out a lone vehicle in a parking lot and play a game... YES, a GAME... of I can crap better than you. I have seen them do it. They swoop down, taking turns (I could have said terns), and lay one down, all the time squawking about it.

Red Skelton... two seagulls flying over a used car lot... one says, "Lets make a deposit on a Ford."

Subject: RE: BS: Not paintballs; rather, it was...
From: Melissa
Date: 14 Jul 11 - 03:55 PM

I know this is dangerous, dumb, undignified and ridiculous (sure looks like fun though!)but I sort of hoped this thread would be about:

duck hunting


I kind of wonder whether the victims of those gullplops were embarrassed or enraged when they found out they weren't targeted by paintvandals..

Subject: RE: BS: Not paintballs; rather, it was...
From: artbrooks
Date: 14 Jul 11 - 04:02 PM

Winner's shirt

Subject: RE: BS: Not paintballs; rather, it was...
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Jul 11 - 04:19 PM

It was standard "information for newcomers" when I arrived at college in the Boston area to warn "DON'T LOOK UP AT THE GULLS."

It seems that they have very good eyesight, they selectively see "eyeballs," and take offense at being "stared at."

It's rumored that one frat house decided to test the theory, and took a group of new pledges for test subjects down to the pier. The "test report" circulated later indicated that pledges assigned to "pick out a gull and look directly at it for at least 30 seconds" were "accurately targeted and hit" 234.732 times as frequently as the control group who stood beside them and looked only at their own shoes.

Recent reports have claimed that flocks of crows (and others similar) can learn to recognize and distinguish between individual people who have "disturbed" them and others who are no threat, or are friendly. Perhaps it was a rental car and a previous user had scared a few birds off some road kill. (Or maybe the current guest threw a few rocks at some?)

[One report claims that the professor who reported studying the ability of crows to recognize specific individuals was asked by "official sources" whether he could train a flock to recognize Osama, back when that was a concern. He sort of claimed he could, but none were deployed as far as we've been told.]

John

Subject: RE: BS: Not paintballs; rather, it was...
From: ranger1
Date: 14 Jul 11 - 05:44 PM

Maeve, what popped out of my mouth when I read your post was "Seagull shit!" My old truck was once heavily bombarded just as I was passing a construction site and it was so loud that I thought someone had thrown construction debris at my truck. Nope, just lots of seagull poop.

Subject: RE: BS: Not paintballs; rather, it was...
From: gnomad
Date: 14 Jul 11 - 06:43 PM

I work on a boat offering sea trips to tourists, we operate from a quay roughly 100 yards from where fishing boats land their catch, the space between being at least partly occupied by fish+chip emporia.

The gulls here are mostly herring gulls, large, well-fed and numerous. On a strafing run a single bird can give a generous splattering to 60 ft by 10 ft of deck, and a fair bit of vertical paintwork as well. I haven't yet spotted them targeting individual people for decoration (for attack and mugging for food is a different matter) I'll keep an eye open, cautiously. Most of us will be hit about twice a year, though the "barker" on the quay gets the worst of it.

One of our "barkers" suffered the ultimate indignity about a year ago; he opened his mouth to call out his wares, and a gull passing about ten feet above managed to drop one right in his mouth. To his credit he didn't vomit though he did spit profusely. I doubt that I would have retained my breakfast, had it been me.

Subject: RE: BS: Not paintballs; rather, it was...
From: gnu
Date: 14 Jul 11 - 06:59 PM

Ohhhh shit!

Subject: RE: BS: Not paintballs; rather, it was...
From: GUEST,999
Date: 15 Jul 11 - 02:17 PM

. . . but it was the day after I got the hook!