Thieves in the Night!

[hummingway]

It is normal for them to be active at night but they are another highly adaptable creature so I would expect them to be more active nocturnally where lighting helps them gather food.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

Just a question. Are seagulls normally nocturnal or is it the lighting in the area that keeps them active?

That was a paid, acting seagull.

They will work at night for fresh shrimp.

Part of the contract.

[hummingway]

Originally Posted by Therapy

That was a paid, acting seagull.

They will work at night for fresh shrimp.

Part of the contract.

I was a excellent bit of acting. The look of anger and dismay on his face when the phone didn't immediately reveal its secrets was real Oscar material.

[sailorboy1]

On my ASA bareboat cruise was in an anchorage BBQing steaks. At the same time I was watching this seagull fly up to the back of another boat, float away and then move back in. This went on a few times and I was wondering what that bird was up to. Right about that time the seagull managed to fly in to the back of the boat a little further, grab a steak off their BBQ and float away with it. Was a good lesson to me to not leave the BBQ with the cover open if wanting to eat whatever I was cooking.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

On my ASA bareboat cruise was in an anchorage BBQing steaks. At the same time I was watching this seagull fly up to the back of another boat, float away and then move back in. This went on a few times and I was wondering what that bird was up to. Right about that time the seagull managed to fly in to the back of the boat a little further, grab a steak off their BBQ and float away with it. Was a good lesson to me to not leave the BBQ with the cover open if wanting to eat whatever I was cooking.

Cooking hot dogs for all the folks at Ft. Desoto park teaches the same lesson.

I still lost 4-5 though I was standing right at the grill.
Actually hit a couple.

And one time in that park the coons jumped in the back of the truck we were unloading. One grabbed a loaf of bread and I ran to it yelling with my arms swinging. It dropped the bread on the tailgate, stood full height, bared it's teeth and hissed. Amazing as it stunned me (as intended of course) for a second. It grabbed up the loaf, jumped to the ground and off it went into the scrub. I chased it slapping at the scrub hoping to scare it into dropping it until I sliced my hand open on a palm frond that left 20-30 thorns in my hand.

We got more bread on the way home from the hospital.

Coons - 1
Me - 0

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Therapy

Cooking hot dogs for all the folks at Ft. Desoto park teaches the same lesson.

I still lost 4-5 though I was standing right at the grill.
Actually hit a couple.

And one time in that park the coons jumped in the back of the truck we were unloading. One grabbed a loaf of bread and I ran to it yelling with my arms swinging. It dropped the bread on the tailgate, stood full height, bared it's teeth and hissed. Amazing as it stunned me (as intended of course) for a second. It grabbed up the loaf, jumped to the ground and off it went into the scrub. I chased it slapping at the scrub hoping to scare it into dropping it until I sliced my hand open on a palm frond that left 20-30 thorns in my hand.

We got more bread on the way home from the hospital.

Coons - 1
Me - 0

Anyone here got any experience with crows in Calcutta? Never seen anything like it, there are millions of them everywhere. I had one steal the food from my fork between plate and mouth once, happened so quick it left me a little stunned. They're smart too.

[Astrid]

When I was college, I was on my way to the parking lot when I saw a couple of painters having their lunch in the back of a pickup; one set his sandwich down and was looking elsewhere when a large black raven swooped down and grabbed it and took off. You should have seen the look on the guy's face when he reached down for it and it was gone! Priceless.

Another time I was walking past an alley when I heard this voice saying, 'Here Pretty Pretty.' I was like, 'What?' and when I looked there was another raven perched on a dumpster.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by minaret

Anyone here got any experience with crows in Calcutta? Never seen anything like it, there are millions of them everywhere. I had one steal the food from my fork between plate and mouth once, happened so quick it left me a little stunned. They're smart too.

Haven't been near there since I was 8.

[shorebird]

Seagulls sit and wait outside eateries in Vancouver's Granville Island, waiting for people carrying plates of food to eat outside. They actually wait until your back is turned, swoop in from behind, and grab food right off the plate. They often target children, and signs warn of this as you exit.

[Nicholson58]

I'm working on training them to bring the fuel cans to our boat. They work for peanuts

[Morganministry]

They are getting pretty brazen about it too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqy9h...layer_embedded

Scott

[JayCall]

Seagulls get pretty brazen. Years ago, I used to fish off a pier in SE North Carolina and you could not leave bait exposed or a pail of small fish uncovered. They would come right up and take and look at you while they did.

One guy in a marina we docked at in Little River, SC had a small dog of some type and a Golden Eagle swooped down and tried to snatch it one morning. But for the leash, the eagle would have made it.

One morning here in Seattle, my daughter and I heard screeching birds and looked up and a bald eagle flew out of a big fir across the street with an entire crow's nest in his talons, there were about 50 crows chasing him screeching for all they were worth. We watched until they were out of sight and it looked like the eagle got away.

[s/v Jedi]

We got this fellow visiting us at night. It tore up a garbage bag that we had left in the cockpit, leaving some nice footprints. The tricky thing is that our slip is about 300' down a dock !

The cat is still here around the marina; fresh scratchmarks on the trees every morning and guards report sightings all the time. It's called a black panther but is actually a Jaguar with Melanistic coloration. Big cat.
On the hard we once had monkeys fighting each other on deck!



ciao!
Nick.

[Astrid]

Big kittys can be scary sometimes. Out for a hike one time in Arizona, I watched as a mountain lion stalked and then brought down an elk; a professor of mine, whilst on a photographic safari in Africa, had a dog snatched out of his tent during the night. When they woke up in the morning, the dog was gone, but there were leopard tracks in the tent.

[hummingway]

I had mountain lion tracks on my back porch in the interior of BC one morning. I had found a jawbone nearby which I still have; some pretty big teeth in it.

They seem to keep to themselves mostly but I was hiking in Topanga Canyon, just out of Los Angeles, with a friend. We got to a look out turned around and there laying on the path we had just come up was a huge mountain lion. With its size and tawny colour I thought it was a Great Dane at first but then it stood up and there was no mistaking that beautiful tail and cat profile. It was a surprising place to see one but I guess they're discrete.