We are experiencing a silence quite unlike anything heard for some weeks. Last night in the small hours I had to put the radio on fearing I had gone deaf.
The lady who lives behind shifted the young seagulls to an unknown place. She's not an unkind person but having them in her yard for a couple more weeks would have been too much. She couldn't use the yard, her cats refused to go out there (they are terrified of the birds) and she couldn't even open her French windows as they would have been straight in and onto her sofa.
Both parents squawked and wailed for a while but have now left. There are still a couple of sets of late developers on neighbouring roofs. Watching them fly for the first time is a heart-stopping spectacle. When they get high enough they spot the sea and are drawn there by instinct. They gather on the beach like a coachload of unruly schoolchildren. They wheel and dart in the air showing off their new-found skills (in contrast to the majestic adults who glide past in a stately manner). It's a sad fact that until they are older they do not know the danger of traffic and many fly straight into cars and buses.
However although they are an endangered species that is not the case down here. The place is over-run with them. And long may it remain so.
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