[Jill]

Ahoy, there!

Roxanne has been making an in depth survey of a seagull colony in the Mar Menor. I told Clive that I would post her report on the forum, and I will - eventually. But having just spent over an hour getting it uploaded to our own site I don't have the energy to do it all again right now!

I am also aiming to find the time to get some seagull photos onto the gallery... if it's within the scope of the technologically challenged.

In the meantime, if anybody would like to see the thing in all its glory, with accompanying photographs, this link will take you there: www.yachtmollymawk.com/2008/04/seagull-survey-1/

As you will see, it's an on-going project...

Got to go now, and check on the anchor
Jill

[lisa]

Brilliant! I particularly liked the use of Xoe's (sorry, I'm too tired to fiddle with the keyboard) bra and the way that "crapping" just jumped into the story, base I know  I can't wait for the next installment. Was it a well-sharpened pencil? Was it brand new? Will Remus's story have a happy ending? I hope so.

[nick]

That's really great Roxanne. Well done.

Crossing fingers for Remus, but I can't say I'm very hopeful

Nick

[Clive]

Hi Jill, Roxy and all at the yachtmollymawk

I just love this.... Its nail-biting stuff!

Roxanne, how on earth did you get the actor to place the egg in her bra?

I am certainly looking forward to your study results on the effects of the yellow legs versus the Audoins.....

Clive

[judith]

Wow! I'm on tenterhooks for the next episode!
Well done for getting the chicks so far! Brilliant effort and I'm sure you will learn sooooo much from it!
The pictures are fantastic, you are so lucky to have such brilliant parents! I took the conventional route with my children and really wish I hadn't! You will learn so much more of value the way you are doing it...and will have so much fun learning!
I wish you good luck with the chicks, by the way, on a different subject, our pups are doing well...5 weks old now and on puppy mush, with the smallest amount of milk formula, so neeearly weaned.
Will send photo#s when we have reduced them for the site!
Judith

[Sue]

My goodness it sounds like you have a challenge on your hands with this pair of tiny birds, they look very cute in the great photos.
Looking forwards to the continuing survey of the islands nest occupants and hope that Remus "draws" on his survival instincts!

Sue

[lisa]

I'll copy my comment here while it's awaiting moderation;

What a relief! (though I had a feeling Remus would be O.K.) I suppose that being carrion-eating birds, as well as fish, that his gastric juices could cope with the pencil - good job they’re not made of lead anymore.
About the chicks noisiness, or rather the lack of it in the nest, are ground-nesting birds generally quieter than tree-nesting species when the nest is unguarded?

Bring on Part 111!

[lucy]

I was hopeful too, because of the way adult yellow-legs swallow great pieces of pigeon, legs and all.

[Jill]

They do WHAT ? !!

Do you mean to say that you have pigeon-eating seagulls up there in Barcelona ? !

We have found the remains of small birds lying close to yellow-legs nests - along with fish bones and beef bones. Specifically, we have found two heads with crossed bills - although whether they actually came from Crossbills, or whether the bill got crossed during the decapitation I cannot say. (We still have the heads, buried under a tomato plant in a pot on the aft deck. We are hoping this will reduce them to the state of mere bone and beak.)

Roxanne cannot believe that her nice friendly gulls would do anything so mean and nasty - "And, anyway", she says, "they couldn't possibly fly fast enough to catch another bird."
But something is killing and decapitating those smaller birdies...

Opinions, please!

[lucy]

Hi Jill,

Seagulls have moved into Barcelona on a big scale in the last 10 years or so, and have learnt to prey on pigeons.  Have a look at this:

http://www.iberianatureforum.com/index.php?topic=1290.0

The tactic is usually selecting a weaker pigeon, and then wearing it out by tireless aerial pursuit.  I don’t know of any cases of them hunting smaller birds, but I’ve often admired their flying prowess.  On Montjuic they sometimes play a game, especially on windy days: there are some giant cactus-like trees that sprout seed pods - a yellow-legs will grab a pod, fly up with it, let it drop, and try to catch it again.  This will go on for ages.

[lucy]

Hi Roxanne and Jill,

I’ve just read accounts IV and V – fascinating stuff.

First of all, I think you’re very brave, returning to the island after being dive-bombed.

Your observations about the bullying are interesting.  I’ve seen how adults will harry young gulls mercilessly, and at first thought it was pure aggression.  Then it occurred to me it might be a kind of “tough love”, a way of forcing the gulls to espabilarse –  by putting them through a type of initiation ordeal.


(ps. This comment has also been posted after the article.)

[Dave]

Hi Caesar
Tell Roxanne I think her gull reports are some of the most interesting things I have read on the web, The page set up is also superb.
regards
Dave K

[Jill]

Hola

The latest instalment of Roxanne's seagull survey has just gone online, hot off the press from the anchorage at Isla Perdiguera. This is a first! Caesar has found that if we hang the wifi aerial inside a colander we can sometimes pick up a network two miles away on the mainland...!

Jill

[lisa]

Time 14.50. Date Thurs 17th. Captain Kirk Lisa received the following message on both links;

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@yachtmollymawk.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.


Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

[Technopat]

Anything to do with Simon's last?

More bugs soon I promise -

 
Regs.,
Technopat

[Clive]

Hi all,

I read it yesterday Ok but the site is down for the moment... I'm sure Caesar will fix it when he sees the problem...

Absolutely brilliant writing as usual....

[lisa]

Working fine now. Good to see the comments up too