I saw something that seemed kind of odd this morning, but maybe it wasn’t. I don’t have much experience with seagulls, having grown up in an area where there are none.
For the past few weeks or so, every morning there has been a flock of seagulls hanging out in the movie theater parking lot behind my apartment. I enjoy the sound, but I haven’t paid much attention otherwise. I happened to look out this this morning, and they were behaving typically, some walking around, some flying. Then I happened to notice a man standing off to the side on the grass holding a WinCo bag (the theater is across the street from a WinCo grocery store). He started to sort of bounce and sway back and forth, starting very slowly, then gradually his movements became more pronounced. As this went on, the gulls became calmer, stopped flying, and started meandering in his general direction. He definitely wasn’t tossing them food (yet, unfortunately, I couldn’t stick around to see if he did feed them later). Ten minutes later, I looked out again, and the man and all the seagulls were gone.
Do you think the man’s been feeding them every morning and they recognized him, so that’s why they calmed down and approached him? This seems odd to me, because the one time I’ve fed seagulls, they were anything but calm, they were flying around and practically snatching the food out of my hand.
Did the goofy dance have something to do with it? Is he a seagull hypnotist?
I’m planning on watching tomorrow to see if he comes back, but I’m intrigued and I thought I’d see if there were any bird experts about who could tell me if I’m witnessing normal behavior (from the seagulls anyway).
Are you sure the man was human? Was a saucer-shaped vehicle parked nearby? It’s possible that the man assumed seagulls to be this planet’s dominant species. He may be in for a surprise when the invasion starts.
If there is a breeze a blowing and it’s at your back…and you have seagulls nearby, you can make it look like you are controlling them.
They will move around and reposition with the wind, in synch, always facing/heading into the wind. Seagulls flock on the ground and aren’t afraid of people…
…so if ever near a grounded flock of sea gulls, and the wind is at your back, just steer yourself with the breeze and it’ll look like you are hypnotizing them. The bag made it better…almost a bonus…because it was potential food, making them pay even closer attention.
It just is very effective with seagulls, because of how they flock on the ground and aren’t afraid of people.
Phil, is that you? the dancing seagull man? I’ve been trying to find you for 10 years. I’m one of the seagulls. I was chosen by the other seagulls and sent to find you. My mission is to bring you back. We all miss your goofy dance.
All the rest of you, sorry, I know the thread has been dead for 10 years, but this is important. If any of you read this I’d love to know what you were doing back in 2007 and what you are doing now! And if any of you can do the goofy seagull dance… we’d sure appreciate a visit from you.
hypnotisedseagull, we prefer that old threads in General Questions only be bumped to provide new factual information. Since this does not, I’m closing it.
I’m starting to get the notion that my question isn’t being taken seriously…