BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?

Subject: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: GUEST,Texas Guest
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 06:04 PM

I feel certain that someone out in Catville has a simple, logical answer to this question and I will be red-cheeked for asking it; but,
I've always wondered where the gulls go at night. When I'm down on the coast the gulls are everywhere and anywhere during the day; but, as the sun starts going down the birds disappear - where in the hell do they go?

I've asked several costal locals about this and have gotten an answer from no one - so I turn to Mudcat. This question, be it known, was prompted by the thread about "bees going to die." Hey, it's an interesting world, huh? Cheers.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 06:15 PM

LOL!!! Man, this question just made me laugh out loud...

All I can offer is this snippet of information. Thousands of seagulls used to congregate around the lakefront in Orillia, specially down by the municipal park which is a very large and well-kept park with lots of recreational facilities.

It bothered City Council a lot. They kept trying to drive the gulls away and they put up signs warning the public not to feed the gulls. They hired professional falconers to try to scare the gulls aways with large birds of prey. Nothing worked. The gulls kept coming. This went on for decades, with the City Council of Orillia losing the battle to the gulls decisively every year. It was funny. At least I thought it was. I was secretly on the side of the gulls.

Anyway, it was determined at length that the gulls were nesting on a long breakwater that the city had built around the harbor. The breakwater is out about a hundred yards from shore, and it had maybe 30,000 gulls nesting on it. The breakwater was where they went at night...a nice place for the gulls, because people didn't go there, and neither did any animals which might have bothered the gulls.

The City Council did some research and they discovered that gulls do not like bushy foliage around their nesting areas. They like bare rocks and sand and gravel. So....the City hired gardeners to fill the breakwater up with bushy plants that were hardy enough to survive the exposure, even in winter.

The bastards succeeded! The breakwater now has a lot of bushes on it, and the gulls do not nest there any more.

Where have they gone? I have no idea. But I'm sure they have found a solution to their nesting problem. There are still a few gulls that come to the park, but it's not like it used to be. I think the gulls should get a sharp California lawyer and sue the city for billions of dollars in damages. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: number 6
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 06:15 PM

hang out with them for 24hrs ... you'll find out where they go.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Peace
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 06:27 PM

"Where have they gone? I have no idea."

Well, one possibility . . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Bert
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 06:39 PM

They go to bars with seaguys.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 06:50 PM

Right here (They get home late, and don't have time to clean)

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 06:53 PM

But some of the rich ones have catered quarters

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 06:55 PM

They don't go anywhere. As soon as dark comes on, seagulls are transformed into bats. Then they turn back into gulls at sunup.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: GUEST, Ebbie
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 07:02 PM

When there is a storm at sea, hundreds of sea gulls in Juneau land on some metal roofs near the water and mill around. (We get enough rain that the roofs appear clean most of the time)

Maybe they sleep there too?

Sea gulls and pigeons don't have young. Or at least, not *little* ones. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Peace
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 07:11 PM

FAQs about seagulls.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Amos
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 07:13 PM

At night they often raft in shallow bays, sleeping on the bosom of the deep, in big circles, huddled together and floating.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Peace
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 07:20 PM

You guys are SO out to lunch about all this. Here are a large number of seagulls sleeping. Seagulls asleep. Pictures don't lie.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Rasener
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 07:41 PM

They all sit on the house roofs at Whitby and as soon as it becomes light they all start shagging away waking everbody up with their noise.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 08:01 PM

It is clear that the gulls' favorite nesting areas are areas that are inacessible and therefore predator-free, such as sheer rocky cliffs and otherwise uninhabited rocky islands. Such was the Orillia Breakwater until City Council screwed it up by planting all those bushes.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: gnomad
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 08:05 PM

I can add to The Villan's comment, after shagging [possibly before as well, I only speak a bit of seagull] they shout about it down my bedroom chimney.

I think quite a few of them could be described as night owls, but for the ornithological contradiction. They like to fly around boats at night, riding the air currents a moving vessel creates, and looking spooky while they do it. Others, of course, hook up with the local seals and go clubbing.

I know, I'll get me peacoat.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: terrier
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 08:06 PM

Whitby seagulls NEVER sleep. I can vouch for that, Yawn!!
This thread is only for the GULLible.:0)

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: jeffp
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 08:19 PM

They told me I was gullible, and I believed them.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 08:52 PM

As I recall, our resident authority described the habit in which they make nests of moss on the craggy sides of the loch, hence earning the name of the "loch moss nesters," or something like that.

(It's better the way he tells it.)

In my area, most of them seem to congregate at the nearest sanitary landfill (garbage dump for those not up on the lastest "PC speak")in the twilight hours, so it would be reasonable to presume that they nest somewhere nearby.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 10:54 PM

Seagulls in Kansas?

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Peace
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 11:12 PM

The seagulls don't KNOW it's Kansas, m/m.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: GUEST,Texas Guest
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 11:17 PM

Peace - thanks for the link back there; it pretty well answered the
question by stating that they usually do their night thing in a rather remote area quite a distance from where they hang out during the day - and that's good enough for me.      Now, what about those fruitcakes? They always appear around Christmas time, but where are they during spring, and summer, and all the other holidays?
And why don't you ever see folks eating them, and,........

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Dickey
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 11:34 PM

The go to eat the bees that died during the day.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Gurney
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 02:29 AM

They go to roost on the school playing fields near my home. Hundreds of them.   I live about 1/4 mile from the beach, but there seem to be more gulls than you can see on the beach during the day, particularly Black-backs.

I conjecture that they like open territory for safety, and with the added bonus that, if it rains, the earth-worms come up to be eaten.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 03:54 AM

Depends on the variety of fruitcake. There's one on my train every morning...

Oh, hang on...


That's me!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 04:19 AM

All the nice gulls love a sailor.

Pedant alert - there are no such birds as seagulls. There are sea-going birds and there are gulls. An albatross is not a gull, but it's a sea-going bird. A gull is a variety of sea-going bird. Ironic that you never hear them called land-fillgulls or tipgulls, which is where they're often found.

Often get grey-backed gulls here in east London when it's stormy out to sea. They come down the Thames and scavenge as they go. They've been known to go for the odd adventurous kitten (as a previous occupier of the house 3 doors down will tell - the kitty survived but spent 3 months hiding under the stairs) and will beat up any bird smaller than themselves. They march down the rooftops like a boot squad, bashing rooks, evicting pigeons and frightening my tits.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 04:34 AM

Once I was walking a spit when a harbor seal popped out of the water, a huge salmon in its mouth. The salmon was thrashing about and its head and tail were taking turns hitting the sand. The seal was determined to hang onto it though and was doing a good job of it.

And then up came a self-important seagull strutting over the beach to the seal and its treasure. I don't know what the further develpments would have been because, salmon in its mouth, the seal slipped back into the water and disappeared.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 11:53 AM

I have no idea where they go to on most nights of the year, but I certainly DO know where they go on the last night of the Sidmouth folk festival -----They go hurtling out to sea, as fast as they have ever been, and in a state of extreme distress, as soon as the first maroon -type firework goes off !! This spectacle is usually accompanied by loud cheering from the assembled masses, although everyone knows that it is only a temporary respite, and that all the gulls will be back the next day,if not before.It doesn"t seem to have dawned on the residents of Sidmouth yet, that if they fired a maroon EVERY night,about ten o"clock------?????

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Blindlemonsteve
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 05:07 PM

I dont know where they go, but why dont we eat them, i reckon they would taste a bit like seafood chicken. a unique taste. a bit like Eagle.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Peace
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 05:12 PM

They winter on oceans. They need access to food, and fresh water freezes over.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 06:40 PM

Well, they're all over around here. And Idaho is landlocked.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Sorcha
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 07:44 PM

Well, at least one sea gull shat in Kendall's ale in Hastings......so he/she wasn't asleep on a raft anywhere!

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Dickey
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 08:16 PM

I likr e to find a big empty parking lot full of seagulls and speed right through middle.

You can't hit one of them no matter how hard you try.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Joe_F
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 08:35 PM

And while we're at it, where do the ducks & geese go when the pond freezes over?

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: dianavan
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 10:05 PM

According to Jonathon Livingston, they go to a higher plane of existence.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: GUEST,Canadienne
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 11:09 AM

I've no idea where they sleep but, although I live over 30 miles from the sea, how is it that as soon as the plough starts in the field at the back of the house they turn up in hundreds?

I'm not complaining - it's a fascinating sight watching them follow the tractor swooping and diving behind it in rows and always a sure sign of Spring.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: MMario
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 11:17 AM

30 miles isn't really that far - as the gull flies.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Scrump
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 12:04 PM

We were always told by the old folks that if we saw seagulls far inland, it indicated the weather was rough out at sea. Has anyone else heard of this old country belief, and where it originated (no, I didn't make it up!) and whether it's true?

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: gnomad
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 01:20 PM

Scrump; I too have heard that belief [East Yorkshire at that time] but I don't know whether it is true. Just to judge by what I regularly see them endure either on the water or simply sitting it out at the waters edge, I suspect a myth, but I don't have any data.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 04:51 PM

I was always told it was rough out at sea if the gulls were inland - but as I grew up never more than 8 miles from the sea it didn't really seem to be inland.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 08:39 PM

Sidmouth.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Joe_F
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 09:16 PM

And also, while we're at it, how is it that the swans chase the geese away, but not the ducks?

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 04:20 AM

Geese are competition for food, ducks can't reach that far down.

I've seen a swan chase a rottweiler off though... so don't be getting too close to those mothers!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 07:04 AM

Apparently, in a "survival" situation, they make good oil-lamps----first, you catches your gull , then ,using the pointy thing on your "Leatherman", you make a hole in its body, insert a piece of string or similar for a wick, and off you go ( providing you remembered the matches, that is ).The adult birds are not really very nice to eat,or so I have heard.The squabs, ( nestlings ) are far nicer, and were much enjoyed by the inhabitants of the island of St. Kilda, where, in fact, the entire economy revolved around the life-cycle of the Shyte-Hawk . Their eggs , ( the gulls', not the islanders' ) are particularly good for cake-making.I was apprised of this useful fact by a Professor Morris, a Fellow, no less , of the Royal Zoological Society, whom I met in Poole, Dorset, and who was wont to sramble about the cliffs near Studland, at nesting-time, in order to obtain his supply of these estimable comestibles. All of this is absolutely true. Really.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: GUEST,Canadienne
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 07:27 AM

Well almost right bubblyrat. In fact the life of St Kilda
revolved around the fulmar
The book "The Life and Death of St Kilda" by Tom Steel is a fascinating insight into this isolated community

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 07:38 AM

Gulls eggs are a delicacy in some circles, not to my taste, although crows seem to like them according to the number I see robbing sea birds nests when I'm fishing beneath cliffs.
The Guga was a large part of the Shetland diet in times gone by, and Icelanders still eat puffins.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Scrump
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 10:34 AM

I live almost as far from the sea as possible in the UK. And I sometimes see gulls around here, normally in winter. But because I'm a long way from the sea, I can never check if it's rough out there. What I need to do, next time I see some gulls near where I live, is post it here and ask the coastal dwelling Mudcatters if the sea looks rough to them.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: pazbhan
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 12:00 PM

Judging by the racket, the roof of my caravan.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 05:51 PM

Fulmar, Schmulmar---They all look the same to me. But my Pop flew in a B17 with some Canadians in WW2, so I forgive your pedantry, Canadienne !!

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 01:08 PM

Sea gulls also make a surprisingly satisfying sandwich. A dash of olive oil, a sprinking of coarse sea salt, black pepper and a few cloves of garlic and ....yum! a large sea gull served on a rustic roll with a large glass of Talisker - is just the the thing for those seaside picnics where anything goes.

Down at Mansfield Sewage Farm, we have a saying:-

The beak is crunchy
the wings are flappy
But I am feeling pissed
And happy!

Slainte!

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 01:20 PM

Scrump...I lived about 15 miles from the sea in North Devon and was taught as a child that seagulls appeared over us when the weather was particularly bad. They were seeking peace and shelter from high winds usually. Interesting that the weather was usually bad where we were when the seagulls appeared so heaven knows how bad it was at the seaside.   I would guess there is some truth in the coming inland th9ng.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: GUEST,ib48
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 04:13 PM

i have it on good authority that steven seagull likes a bit of chinese,followed by an oily foot massage from a geiha girl.

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 05:57 PM

A Geiha girl ?? Would she be anything to do with Johnny Reb, perchance ??

Subject: RE: BS: Where do sea gulls go at night?
From: Joe_F
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 08:40 PM

Well, now the geese are back at Fellsmere Pond, but the ducks (at least 50) have ganged up on the swans (2) & confined them near a wall. This afternoon a reconnaissance seagull was circling overhead, no doubt amused by the spectacle.