Pigeons or seagulls...which are more disgusting? I can't decide. I find them both annoying, ugly, scavenger-like and not extremely useful. (I know, I know. As a good Mormon girl, and a Utah native, I should be remembering the time the early UT Saints crops were saved from the crickets by the seagulls...thus leaving their mark in history and obtaining the state bird status.) Still...they attack the students in my quad daily during lunch. Just today I saw quite the adacious fellow swoop down out of the sky and rip a sandwhich right out of the hand of a screaming 7th grade girl. I had to admit I laughed afterwards, it was pretty random! (I had to pretend I was outraged at the moment.)
Some California coastal cities have municipal codes prohibiting the feeding of seagulls or pigeons. So, my question for the day is this: What is their main purpose? Most folk don't eat them -- they are trash birds after all. Haven't we all had a run-in with one of these overly-friendly birds? I know I had a pack of gulls dive-bomb me in San Marcos Square in Venice. And, Mary Poppins and Bird Lady notwithstanding, feeding the birds isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Actually, it can wind up creating a bad situation, as I learned myself at the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral. For example, you'd never want to attract birds near to an airport as it can cause "bird strikes", such as the one that downed the US Airways flight into the Hudson River today. Yes, it's true. Just one of these little "feathered bullets" can down an Airbus 320 within minutes. I must admit, I didn't know this until today's news, but it just added to my reasons for disliking these creatures.
Here's a commentary from my friend Kristina and I on these "Flying Rats" as we sat on a park bench in Prague.
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