BS: Disgusting Seagulls

Subject: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: cujimmy
Date: 08 May 25 - 06:25 AM

I attended Filey Folk Festival over last weekend and had a wonderfull time, met so many lovely people, hard great muic and made new friends. However on the Sunday the final day I heard a group of people sing what must have been a self pened song about Filey (on the east coast of Yorkshire England), a happy song but with line which suggested the Seagulls Shit on us all. I had a chuckle of course. When I went to my van to go home on Monday my wing mirror was absolutely covered in Seagull crap - it was absolutely disgusting, Im trying to post a photo of it here to show you, but im not sure how to. I was looking for similar posts from the past on Mudcat, there is a closed one from 2002.
    Anyway the Seaguls just up the coast in Whitby are notorious as well, Myself and my friend took 2 children, boys, a few years ago, we bought them some chips then one of them started crying, a Seagul had crapped on his chips, so we had to buy him more.
    And then last year myself and Bridie my friend were walking along in Whitby, there was a big crowd of them in front of us, so we crossed to the other side of the road to get away, then they all seamed to take off at the same time and one of them must have had a grudge against Bridie because it flew over her and crapped on her lovely fair hair she had just washed before we came ou. We had to go bak home so she could have a shower. So im going to try to write a song and call it something like Arnt Seaguls Bastards or something similar.
   Have other people had similar stories to tell.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: GUEST
Date: 08 May 25 - 10:59 AM

I seem to recall a parody of the RT song ‘The Angels have taken my Racehorse Away’ called ‘The Seagulls have taken my Pasty Away’. Might have been Tony Rose.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: RTim
Date: 08 May 25 - 11:09 AM

I find Seagulls very interesting...having been in the past many times to Sidmouth Festival and stayed on the seafront... and also visited friends in St Ives....British Seagulls are Very Noisy and Aggressive...and now I live a half a mile from the sea here in Massachusetts...The Seagulls are nowhere near as bad...and I seldom see or hear them..!!

Then there is the old Gutta Percha (ie. Mike Sadler song...)

- And away, boys, away, Down the Solent
We passed Calshot Spit where the seagulls all flit (or s**t)
And we're bound for the Isle of Wight


Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: sciencegeek
Date: 08 May 25 - 11:24 AM

Red Skelton had the Homer and Heathcliff skits on his show and my favorite was the one where they are flying over water and one says to the other, "oh look at the people on that boat. They're looking up at us." and the other responds, "Must the ship of fools."

Growing up the sea, we all wore seagull splatter along with the boats. Now they come inshore and are seen feeding in the parking lots on the trash & litter left by the slobs too lazy to find a trash can.

Old time fishing boats used seagulls to locate where fish where feeding at the surface.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: cujimmy
Date: 08 May 25 - 12:11 PM

Yes I read on another thread about Seagulls stealing a whole pasty from someone in Sidmouth, it must have been quite heavy and hot, so it kept dropping the pasty, but the pasty stayed intact for a long time, must have been a very well made Cornish pasty. The type that would possibly fill you up for the whole day, yes they do make excellent pasties down there dont they, and cider of course.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: Rain Dog
Date: 08 May 25 - 12:33 PM

They do like stealing food.
I have seen them swooping down to steal food from people's hands in the pedestrian precinct. That does make people jump.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 08 May 25 - 12:49 PM

They were there a long time before we were.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: cujimmy
Date: 08 May 25 - 01:56 PM

file:///C:/Users/cujimmy/Downloads/20250507_101341.jpg

See if this works

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: cujimmy
Date: 08 May 25 - 02:15 PM

Sorry that didnt work. BUT - Ive just been watching on BBC the news about the new pope being chosen. The crowd were cheering as white smoke started comming out of the chimney to signal a new pope had been chosen, and right beside the chimney is a seagul looking towards the white smoke taking all the applause from the crowd - aye the Holy Seagull is now famouse.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: mayomick
Date: 08 May 25 - 03:26 PM

Like other creatures there's good seagulls and bad ones. you can recognise the good ones because they are always in pairs.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 08 May 25 - 03:59 PM

There are several species of "seagull" but the one that attracts most attention in the UK is the herring gull. Lean over and cover your pasty and you should be OK. One day, a gull snatched half of my prawn sandwich from my hand in Lemon Quay in Truro, clean as a whistle. They are extremely intelligent and interesting birds. In the UK their numbers have plummeted by half in the last 25 years and they are on the conservation Red List. I love them for their cleverness, their persistence and their feisty behaviour. We are responsible for making them "nuisances" by dint of our own careless behaviour. Generally, they are inclined to thieve but they will only shit on you if they see you as a threat.

Steve (Al fresco pasty-eater and seaside dweller)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: cujimmy
Date: 08 May 25 - 04:08 PM

Steve, do you mean they shit on you on purpose, thats it im taking my catapult next time.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 May 25 - 06:51 PM

here in the Land of Oz I've noticed over the years that pigeons humble, they sidle in & out begging for a bite, never catching your eye, whereas seagulls stare you straight in the eye saying you've stolen my food, give it back or I'll kill you ...

Tho of course in Sydney we also have the straw necked Ibis (aka bin chicken) which came to the Big Smoke & other urban environments after droughts inland c.1982 - ibis shit is much bigger than seagull shit! Bin chickens: the grotesque glory of the urban ibis – in pictures

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 08 May 25 - 07:00 PM

I'm saying that they'll target you with faeces, and even vomit, IF they see you as a threat, and they're not half bad at it either. But as I said they're on the Red List, which means that it's illegal to kill them or do them other damage. So hold fire with your catapult! Study them a bit and get to love 'em. They're amazing beasts. Mostly, we do far more harm to wildlife than wildlife does to us. I might make exceptions in the case of those two bastard mosquitos that bit me yesterday...

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 08 May 25 - 07:08 PM

The gulls in Padstow sit on the rubbish bins by the benches where we all sit to eat our pasties (by the way, the pasties from the Chough bakery on the Padstow harbourfront are the best in the west...) and make eye contact all the time, Sandra. I love that and I talk to them and they like it! Mind you, I am getting old...

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 08 May 25 - 07:54 PM

Bird, Pigeon, Sea Gull .... experienced them all ... however, many times worse is pelican poop.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle
There are no public lavatories in Mumbai.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 May 25 - 07:56 PM

your gulls might be a tad different to Sydney gulls, Steve

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 08 May 25 - 08:55 PM

I believe that the silver gull is the commonest species in Australia. Not the same as ours indeed, but it's in the same genus.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: RTim
Date: 08 May 25 - 10:22 PM

An early influence on me - Rick Keeling and his song Seagull...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AbshVkKxFo


Tim Radford

-

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: GUEST,cnd (on vacation)
Date: 09 May 25 - 04:41 PM

I've spent very little of my life in coastal areas besides my family's infrequent reunions at the beach; though it used to be yearly, it's been about once or twice a decade for some time now. As such, the only thing I have to add to this is that one of my strongest memories of those trips is of a gull. An ornery old thing, it had only one leg, but was as mean as I'll get out. The thing was known up and down the strand for its ruthless ways, and was the thing of lore among local kids for a few years. I suspect he has long since passed on.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: Pappy Fiddle
Date: 09 May 25 - 07:00 PM

I was at Newport (California) one day. The surf had cut a berm in the sand sort of like this

(land)--------\________ (ocean)

and I sat on the berm facing the sea and wind. About 20 feet to my left was a large pelican on the same berm. He finally decided I was bad company and he spread his wings - just held them out to the sides - and the wind lifted him straight up. At about 15 feet high he did no more than turn his head to the left and this changed his whole aerodynamic form, he turned and sailed away, still without otherwise moving a muscle.

Salt Lake has seagulls just like the ocean does. Probly everyone knows the legend of the seagulls that saved the Latter-day Saints when they first arrived there. Brigham Young said something about the dove flying gracefully, but I've never seen them do that. Maybe he said seagull and the clerk wrote down dove. Your seagull is one of the most graceful flight artists I've ever seen.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 10 May 25 - 04:31 AM

Yes, I have experienced the cunning of the Sidmouth herring gulls at firsthand (pun intended).
Sitting on a bench with prawn sandwich in my right hand, I suddenly felt a big “boomph “ at the back of my right shoulder, which caused my sandwich to fly out of my hand and land on the pavement, where the gull polished it off.

Butin other areas you may find fulmars, who, if they don’t like you, may spit their oil at you. If you get any of this stinking stuff on your clothes, you might as well throw them away, as you’ll never get rid of the smell!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 10 May 25 - 09:15 AM

Well my Truro prawn butty was an M&S Best Ever. I was just about to eat the second half of it when the gull swooped. It didn't touch me at all and it removed the whole half of sandwich in one piece and flew off with it, no knocking it to the ground or anything. I was filled with both admiration and hatred simultaneously. That was over two quid's worth of butty, that was. I did benefit in the end (though not fiscally) because I nipped back into Marks and bought another one, so my lunch was 1.5 times bigger than it should have been. Damn fine sandwiches, those.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 May 25 - 03:56 PM

I guess this ought to be Disgusting, not Digusting, Seagulls?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Digusting Seagulls
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 10 May 25 - 04:54 PM

Definitely. If you insist.

Subject: RE: BS: Disgusting Seagulls
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 May 25 - 05:23 PM

I have waited a long while to find significant music or folklore content in this thread. I think it's time for it to move to BS.

Subject: RE: BS: Disgusting Seagulls
From: Helen
Date: 11 May 25 - 03:03 AM

Songs relating to seagulls:

Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Neil Diamond

The Ballad of a Crystal Man (Donovan)

Jonathon Livingston Budgerigar - Bob Hudson

Subject: RE: BS: Disgusting Seagulls
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 11 May 25 - 09:25 AM

Well I was at a folk festival watching Morris dancing when my herring gull disaster happened.

And there is a nice jig tune called “The Seagull”. Could maybe start a new thread on the subject of songs and tunes with birds in them? There are about 8 or 9 in Robert Burns’ “Now Westlin’ Winds”. But it may have been done before?

Subject: RE: BS: Digesting Seagulls
From: Donuel
Date: 11 May 25 - 09:55 AM

I thought the sappy Johnathon Livingston would be mentioned.
I don't feel any special angst or retribution toward the animal kingdom, although viruses are a scourge. One of my favorite Earth beautification animals is the beaver, king of diversification.

Subject: RE: BS: Disgusting Seagulls
From: The Sandman
Date: 11 May 25 - 12:31 PM

has anyone tried cooking them slowly

Subject: RE: BS: Disgusting Seagulls
From: gillymor
Date: 11 May 25 - 01:10 PM

My favorite seagull song, and I don't remember if I've heard any others, is Song to a Seagull by Joni Mitchell off her first LP.
The late David Crosby also mentioned a seagull in the opening of The Lee Shore, "Wheel gull spin and glide, you've got no place to hide...".

Subject: RE: BS: Disgusting Seagulls
From: Helen
Date: 11 May 25 - 02:54 PM

Well Donuel, maybe you should listen to Jonathon Livingston Budgerigar by the Oz comedian/singer/songwriter Bob Hudson. See link above. :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Disgusting Seagulls
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 May 25 - 07:44 PM

My take on it.



https://soundcloud.com/denise_whittle/ned-the-seagull

Subject: RE: BS: Disgusting Seagulls
From: Fred
Date: 12 May 25 - 04:07 AM

Some of us (me included) had a laugh about seagulls on another thread.

However, I have no issue with 'em. It's their world too, and they have as much right to be here as we do.