Seagull true colours

[Grumpy]

Or colors if you are American or Australian or cannot spell correctly.
Had to cancel out of my planned fishing trip up to the Kaipara via Warkworth and that was after spending all day Tuesday getting the ally boat and my trusty silver century all ready.The gull was really primed for a good days work. Even topped up the gearbox oil.
Had included all the safety gear , cellphone despite there being no coverage in the area I was going to , and even a box of flares , smoke bombs and rockets. Oars, large double ended paddle, gas operated life jacket leaving just enough room for fishing gear and about 10 litres of 10-1 fuel, incase we slipped out of the Kaipara through the "graveyard" and ended up in Tasmania.
NO one absolutely no one , the missus or the kids , any government authority , unhappy neighbours was going to get rid of me ,not that paranoia is present or that I feel the slightest bit unloved.
So with my also disgruntled fishing mate I sat down the backyard under the ever increasingly grey clouds and set to trying to make myself a copy of or a replica of the seagull that "Nudge" has on the front of his boat in the Waikato race.
A proud bird , well proportioned and of great colouring.
Despite having great artistic talents, making mine was a struggle.
Wrong size , colouring . Wrong shape, false leg structure, failure to create a genuine lifelike bird, but with the approaching storm now racing it I forged ahead and trusted my fingers and mind to succeed , leaving all doubt to one side.
Please take a look at the attached photos and tell me if, in any shape or form you can see a resemblance to our great and famous bird,the almighty seagull,
My mate reckons it looks like an Indian Myna bird which I find insulting.
Perhaps a young seagull?

[Hugz]

You are right about true colours.... you stuffed up big time, it should have red feet.

[AusAnzani]

Definitely an Indian Myna, an introduced pest that robs nests made by natives, discarding any eggs that may lay within along the way.

That said, they are fairly intelligent and have a bit of an attitude that makes them interesting to those less concerned about native wildlife.

As for colours and colors, we Aussies tend to be a little flexible and so will use both depending on circumstance. BTW;

cellphone is 2 words not one,

incase is two words not one,

there should be no spaces between the end of one word and a comma

and it’s good practice to leave a space after a comma or a full stop ie before the next word.

[Grumpy]

Thank heaven your not an American.
Will get my cases sorted out pronto.

[AusAnzani]

All that said, I've never seen a Myna (or Seagull) sitting comfortably on some ones hand before.

Make me wonder if it's really a budgie or parrot in disguise

[Grumpy]

Not a budgie or a parrot .This myna, my seagull, turned up late in the morning and landed on my mates head and stayed with us for maybe 40 minutes only leaving when we unfortunately turned our attention away to fishing matters.
Then , poof , away it flew.
Shows how simple clean minds are so easily distracted.
This bird was obviously intelligent , jumped inbetween my friend and myself , on shoulders , heads, arms etc and then walking amongst our fishing gear on the bbq table paying a lot of interest in our coloured fishing lines esp the blue.
It would listen yo you talk ,looking directly at you and turning its head sideways.
Really.
I considered bonking it on its head, then painting and preserving it as my "seagull" but my friend said it was obviously more intelligent than both of us put together so no.
It only took some bread crumbs from us when we offered between our thumbs which finally convinced us it , strange to say that it
must have been someones pet
I still feel though that despite all my long tears I can still pull the birds and no one is going to make me believe otherwise.
And , I still do not have a seagull to put on the front of my dinghy.

[Nudge]

You been on that "Westie Weed" again Grumpy!
That would have made perfect fish bait!!!
Neat that it hung around. Do you feed it?

[Grumpy]

No "smoke" has entered my lungs since 1999 and westie weed never.
The myna left after a few crumbs of bread and obviously after having enjoyed then becoming bored with the human company.
Do not expect to see it again and if it was tame I believe it will face many challenges surviving in the real world.
My wife did comment that yesterday she heard a great deal of bird noise down the back and observed a great deal of bird movement also .
Perhaps a revisit
I found it most amazing and quite a thrill.
Anyway , enough .
Might never live this one down.

[AusAnzani]

Awesome!

[Grumpy]

At risk of whatever I just have to tell how this bird came back to visit at 10 am today , Monday.
As I passed the clothesline it came in to land amid a small number of common garden sparrows.
Responded immediately to my whistles , came to shoulder and stayed aboard while I went inside the house to show to the no 1 bird in my life.
Seemed to get edgy so I went outside where it flew away, hopefully to never return forcing me to regale my stories on line here .
I feel very close to Sir David Attenborough right now.
Wonder if he collects seagulls too.

[AusAnzani]

Pretty amazing

[Charles uk]

Now here's a non indigenous bird that has evolved faster than the local population, way smarter than the English Cuckoo & the locals, it doesn't have to search for it's food, just land on a Jaffa & they will feed you peeled prawns & Brazil nuts to encourage you to return!


Excuse the Jaffa reference Grumpy, that was what he was singing whilst he was waiting for one of his servants to prepare his afternoon tea!

[Grumpy]

Prawns and Brazil nuts ?
I'm a Jafa from West Auckland not a Jaffa from the Shore or Eastern Bays.
One F I love , adore , fills me with pride but find the extra F an unknown beast
This bludger of a bird can have its fill of simple toheroa soup and maybe a local cheese but my pension only goes so far.
And if its not gone by the end of winter it will have to fend to its own needs.

[Charles uk]

I'm a pomme Grumpy, you can't expect me to spell as well as walk & talk at the same time!

I thought it had a double f, as there was a sign on the bank of the Waikato at the end of Hamilton, that said
"Flush twice the Jaffa's need the water!" & I think that had a FF.

[Grumpy]

Mate, for heavens sake..
Hamilton is a great place to grow cows etc but the people only reside there because of their fear of crossing the Bombay hills.
I fully appreciate and admire your sincere loyalty to those so involved with the great Waikato river event but if even their wealthy banks in their main city do not understand or know of the true meaning behind the word "Jafa" perhaps their entire philosophy towards the northern folk is based on some giant misconception.
Greater civilisations have disintergrated because of similar misconceptions
But nevertheless I will be back next year to watch , for at least one day, the seagulls racing up the Waikato , perhaps in disguise .
I hope your understanding of this matter has been improved.