Seagull Kindness
Nurturing the Young Ones
Today I'll share a rather interesting observation. A story of a calm space in what seems like a storm. It's a tale of understood rules of protecting family and children.
From a distance we hear the roar of the falls and loud squawking of excited birds.
As we walk closer we see a scene perhaps from an Alfred Hitchcock movie. A frenzy of birds and water.
In spring time in Maine the fish run up the streams from the ocean to the lakes. It's a yearly migration from the warmer winter ocean to the now thawed and wonderful lakes. It is a difficult task with waterfalls along the way to leap over. And a task made more difficult with other obstacles. Hungry Seagulls and Eagles are waiting looking for dinner after a very long cold winter of not much food. It is Spring Feast Day for the Birds. They are expert fisherman waiting for a fresh catch.
As one would expect it is a scene which from our perspective looks like a frenzied kind of chaos. Squawking Gulls are everywhere, moving quickly, leaping at the water, catching fish, often dropping them as they hurry to keep them from others. It is fair game for anyone to steal a fish from another in this situation.
All Gulls are on high game in their skills of diving into the waters to catch the fast moving fish. But also they are keen on their skills of how well they can keep the fish once they have it. The best strategy is dive fast when the moment is there, wrestle well when the fish is caught, get away as fast as one can, and then quickly gulping the fish down whole. It is an interesting scene to watch with never a dull moment. If one can imagine a rule-less football game it may come close to the scene. Or perhaps really really fast Ballet.
But....
in the middle of all this noise and action ...
is a space of amazing peace...
I watched a young Gull just learning to fish.
It had several feet of it's own open space with no other birds nearby. It was it's safety zone that no one entered. It perched in one of the better locations waiting for the opportunity. It missed many fish then finally succeeded in catching one. Then as it tried to carry it off it dropped into the water. Time to start over. It tried many times and finally had one tight in it's beak and hopped to the closest dry spot from the water.
There it layed the fish down.
Looked at it.
Picked it up again.
Set it back down.
Adjusted how it held it in it's beak.
Set it back down.
Stepped many feet away.
Then returned to snatch it up again.
Then set it down again.
Then walked away again.
And came back.
It was practicing and learning how to hold the fish, how to grab it.
Coming at it from fresh angles each time.
It finally decided it was lunch time and began slowly eating the fish bite by bite
in a peaceful slow manner.
In all of this time no other Gull came close. There was a large safety zone of just the young Gull learning how to fish. No one tried to steal the fish even when the young one left it and seemed to wander off. There was an understood rule that all of the Gulls followed. You don't steal from a kid learning how to fish. There were no rules for adults when it came to fishing. Anything was fair game today. But in the midst of all of this action and chaos here was this wonderful space of calm and peace. A space of learning and patience for the young one.
They all understood the importance of looking after the young. There was an appreciation of giving them space to learn on their own. Special rules applied here that all honored.
Meanwhile everyone else carried on with thier wrestling matches. Here a Great Black Backed Gul managed to hook a smaller guls bill under it's grasp. They wrestled for a minute till the larger finally listened to the smaller most certainly saying.... "Hey you got my beak! I can't let go!!!". In the end he let go for just the needed half a second and then flew off with the hearty dinner.
As we continue to look closer at the world around us we find amazing moments of clarity and understanding. Places where even in what seems like chaos, there is order.
A world of kindness and heart. A sacred space of learning. We find peace in the storm.
And besides..... It's not our culture to judge their eating habbits.