The Western Gull

I love hanging out with the gulls. I know a lot of people consider them pests and I admit they have some bad habits. Opportunistic feeders, they can get in a lot of trouble in a fishing and tourist community but I would like to share some other interesting traits that make them special to me.

 

First, they have an incredible vocabulary. Though their distinctive voice is the voice of the coast, they actually have a large number of songs.  Gulls have a gentle cluck reserved for “family”, a bark used for calling the colony and a very loud screech.  The alarm shrieking is used on a Bald Eagle that perches too closely to the nests in Spring.  

The gulls are perfectly adapted for life on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Did you know gulls are one of the few creatures that can drink seawater? The salt in the seawater they drink concentrates in glands above their eyes. This concentrated salt water flows out through the nostrils. That’s why, often, you see drops fall from their bills.

Gulls are useful weather indicators. Sometimes they just seem to delight in soaring on the wind drafts, wheeling up, down, back and forth – just for the joy of it. At the start of a big storm, they head inland to wait out gale force winds. When I see the gulls return to play on the still-whipping gusts, I know the storm is almost over.

Gulls have a strong sense of community. When food is scarce, if I offer a little treat to one seagull, he or she (hard to tell them apart) will call the whole colony to share it. You’d think the treat would be snapped up greedily and it is – once the colony is present.

Gulls are diligent guardians.  When the juveniles leave their nests, they do a lot of standing around on the beach. This is when they are shown how to fish and they learn all the other gull ground rules. The Western Gull adults watch over the newbies on the beach during this time, never leaving them alone. In fact, adult Western Gulls supervise the migratory Tern chicks as well as their own young.

Gulls mourn their losses. I watched a pair of gulls build a nest together on my neighbor’s roof; each bringing tufts of grass from the dunes. Then there was the mating, tending the egg in the nest, and a chick. The new parents took turns watching over their baby and running out to the ocean for fishy pabulum. They were tireless. Unfortunately, the chick fell off the roof. It survived for a while on the ground but finally disappeared.  When the chick disappeared, the parents flew over the dunes calling for it for a couple of days. Finally, on the second day as evening drew close; they seem to agree the chick was gone. The parents stood at the end of the dunes at sunset, just looking out together. After an hour or so, just before dark, they flew off to join the colony on the beach and never returned to the empty nest.

Take another look at our feathered friends sometime; shining in the sun and calling us to the shore.  They might have something more to say to you.

Something more than the Stones is Rolling...

I was steamrollered by time and never got over it.  The first time I heard “I Can’t Git No Satisfaction” in an elevator over Musak, I went into a deep depression that lasted for weeks.  The saccharine sounds of violin strings harmonized to the familiar tune as the crazy words went through my head "...and I'm tryin' to make some girl who tells me baby better come back later next week 'cause you see I'm on losing streak. I can't get no, oh no no no. ”.  I couldn’t close my ears.  The insipid music filling every square inch of space in that metal box and sucking the air out of me.  Gasping, I got off on at the next floor. Yes, those were black days indeed – something was very wrong.

It’s been a while.  But, something has been on my mind the last couple of days and it’s the time to write.  There has been a death in our family recently and I’ve been thinking about that.  I had picked up a thought I read on the internet a long time ago and made a note of it:  “They didn’t leave you, they simply died.” 

I've “lost” quite a few people in my life; both family and friends.  It has never felt simple.  I don’t just mean the flurry of condolences and visiting, the horrible trip to the funeral home to make arrangements when the pain is still too raw and new, the service, the sympathy.  I mean the business of getting on with life; buying fewer apples at the grocery store, finding laundry takes a little less time, and keeping track of one less person in my life all the time with an aching heart  - not to mention the guilt.  There is always some guilt.  Facing the irrevocability of death is pure misery.  People just don’t come back from death and it’s hard on those of us “left behind”.  I don’t like it.

Still, it lingers in my mind; ”they didn’t leave you…”.   It’s a loud truth that is heard only if you listen very closely.  You have to listen with your heart and be open to those feelings.  I realize suddenly that those people in my life I’ve lost, I remember with love.  They are with me as much today as they ever were.  They are there with a special turn of phrase, a treasured bit of advice, a love for apple pie, a sparkle in the eye, a passion for music, and even gum-chewing  gusto.  Their memories seem as irrevocable as their passing. They are all here with me - every one.  The love, and what I’ve learned from them all, is there to fill the hole.

Coming to terms with death, it’s been one of my hardest lessons.   

Valentine, Be Mine

Valentine’s Day is coming up. This year, while searching my Internal Files (mind) for the appropriate response to a day that celebrates love (what could be better), it brought me to thinking about traditions.  Everyone that knows me, knows that I create my own traditions (I pick my age each year, too, but that’s another story). If I organize and do it once, it’s a tradition and perfectly okay to do it every year after that. I came to this understanding first when I was about 19  years old. Eloped and newly a “housewife”, I had no clue about how to do anything; cooking, shopping, laundry were all new concepts for me. I was shocked when the first holiday arrived and nothing “happened”. My Mom and Dad were expert holiday makers and I had never given it a thought before then. The second time was years later when, at age 40, I became a parent for the first time when I married my now husband and his three wonderful kids. Back than coming up with stuff for birthdays was a challenge – much less the mega trio: Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.

So, over the years, I’ve learned how to freely create an event. Because, aside from the meaning of any given holiday, for me, traditions are about confirming love and creating happy memories. Should it be a meal, decorations, or just a  walk, it just has to be heartfelt. Anyway, Valentine’s Day can be kind of loaded with expectations. So whether you spend it in glorious solitude or with friends, family or that hottie in your life, enjoy! Simply celebrated or elaborately executed, I hope it’s all your own.


Let cupid’s arrows fly!

Why do I have a jar crammed full of scrunchies?  They’re not cool anymore.  Yet I hang on to them.  I have too much “stuff” but when I’m weeding out junk, somehow I can’t dispose of a single scrunchie.  When does thrift cross the line to hoarding?  I wonder these things…