Ok here is my gripe.
It started out as a great day. The sun was shining and I decided to take my lunch and eat it on the beach. I love living in a port town. Anyway it was in the middle of the week and the beach wasnt crowded. I had my lunch, my book, and lovely scenery. Now there were seaguls.
Dont get me wrong I have no problem with seaguls. Without them the water just wouldnt seem right. Ive gotten used to there squalking and find it oddly comforting.
Now my gripe is the term ShitHawk for Seagulls. I dont really have a problem with vulgarity, hell I worked in a carpentry shop, and do those boys ever swear. I just find that particular term for Seagulls unwarrented. I cant really say I have walked along the beach and noticed a huge amout of Seagull shit, and well even if I did , shit happens. Its just something you have to deal with. Its not like the Seagull sits there and ponders where the best place to do his/her buisness that would annoy the most people possible. And I know people who whenever a seagull flys overhead will duck over cover their head to avoid the mess. I have never heard of that happening in real life.
But really that is only a partial gripe.
The real grip is that when I first saw the birds ShitHawk was the first word for them that I thought of, only because of hearing people say it all the time.
And I was really dissapointed in myself that I was so susseptable to a term that hate to begin with.
A woman at work has relatives who live on the coast in Rhode Island. Two days ago, they were to have a picnic in the backyard, got the hamburger, hot dogs, buns and sack of potato chips on the picnic table, went back in to get drinks, and when they came out, two seagull swooped down, one picked up the package of buns and the other the package of chips and off they went.
I believe they call the birds something akin to flying f**krats.
My brother lives on the coast of Massachussets south of Boston. He had a gull steal three boneless chicken breasts off the grill in the backyard while it was lit! He said the whole episode took about 5 seconds (he had just stepped into the house to get something.
I just call them gulls, because there is no actual species called a seagull. Or as we used to say at the bird sanctuary “there are no “A” gulls and no “B” gulls so there are no “C” gulls either.”
There’s Laughing Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Black-tailed Gulls, Glaucous Gulls, Western Gulls, San Diego Gulls and California Gulls*, just to name a few, but there are no Seagulls. They’re gulls. They serve a purpose and like some other animal species they find their purpose much easier by hanging around man. Sure they’re annoying but they’re just birds and they have no malicious intent when they poop on you or steal your food they’re just being gulls.
[sub]*I wish they all could be California Gulls.[/sub]
I call them shithawks, and will always call them shithawks. I hate them. I’ll tell you why:
The factory I worked at was a fish factory, in a harbour, of course. Every. single. day, the place was surrounded by shithawks. You want to know what they did?
They SHIT. All over our vehicles.
Nobody washes their vehicles if they work at that factory, because there is no point. All of our shiny new cars, trucks, Jeeps, bikes? Covered in shit. Old tin can cars, trucks, Jeeps, bikes? Covered in shit. Big, runny white blobs.
I loathe the shithawks. When you’ve spent over 25 years living in an area that if you see one of those suckers, you put your hood up or you’re as good as creamed, you’d call 'em shithawks, too. :mad:
Around here, we call them ratbirds. I understand that some people use this term for pigeons, but we don’t have many pigeons in Michigan. For that matter, we don’t have any seas either (although the Great Lakes are big enough that they can be thought of as freshwater seas )
Ratbird just seems an appropriate name for seagulls. Especially after you’ve watched a flock of them raid some poor schlub’s picnic.
Fly with meeeeeeeeeee,
Lesbian seagull…
Settle down and rest with me!
Come fly (FLY!) with me, lesbian seagull…
To my little nest by the sea.
With me, that’s where you belong, with me;
I know I can be strong when you’re – you’re with me !!
Me, too! Yeah, me too! The day after I watched it, I called my best friend and said “mine ! MINE!! mine!” - then hung up. Cracked her up - but then she knows how I am.
Funny, Wile E.
