Gulls have made contact with many of us. Here are a few instances of those encounters from readers.
“I’ve been working the last 15 years for an electrical contractor at Kimberly-Clark in Everett, and have been hit four times: twice while walking between buildings, and twice while riding along on a bicycle. Now that takes skill on the gull’s part!”
John Martin, via e-mail
“About 1932 I was on the dock in Anacortes. An English freighter was loading baled pulp from the Anacortes pulp mill. On the deck was an English officer. A seagull flew over his head and pooped on his cap and shoulder. The Englishman took off his cap and looked up at the seagull and said, ‘I say there old chappy. Can’t you wobble about a bit? I’m no blooming hod!’ (A hod is a board used to transport mortar to a mason.)”
Ernest Anderson, via letter
“Even though many of our members are proud Everett High graduates, the living ‘mascots’ have targeted them. They show no favoritism to those parked outside the Everett Elks lodge, although I think they take particular pride in attacking just-washed vehicles and convertibles with the tops down.”
Ann Hall, via e-mail
Carol Isenberg, 76, of Everett, lost her luggage on a flight to Monterey, Calif., where she was to embark on a cruise. While using a pay phone to contact the airline about her luggage, a gull above her let loose, marring her only outfit.
“I didn’t have anything else for four and a half days,” she said.
Silvas Parker of Everett woke two weeks ago to find his back deck covered with gull droppings.
“It looked like someone took white paint and just threw it,” he said.
Parker said he’s seen gulls use droppings as weapons against one another as they fight in the air.
“My guess is that they got into a fight above my deck,” he said. “It was one of the worst messes I’ve ever seen.”
“About 15 years ago I started feeding them. It’s very therapeutic. Say you’re having a hard time in life, you go down and hear the voices and they cry out. There’s a rhythm, a music, and they’re so grateful that you’re feeding them.
I’ve had threats. (People) say, ‘Why are you feeding those things? They’re just rats with wings.’ But in my eye, they’re a thing of beauty and a thing of freedom.”
Jeri “Jaybird,” via telephone
Donna Burke, 69, of Everett, has a carport with a closed-in ceiling – no rafters where gulls can roost – but for years they flew through and splattered her car with droppings.
“They would just leave me their little greeting cards every day,” she said.
Burke finally tired of washing her car, so she bought a $50 car cover. Since then, the seagulls have stayed away, and the car cover has stayed clean.
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