Bird Watching

"The gull sees furthest, who flies highest." Jonathon Livingston Seagull

I never thought I'd be writing about bird watching, but the more I watch birds, the more fascinating I am finding them. Even the common seagull. Once upon a time seagulls used to annoy me with their screeching, and their efforts to steal my hot chippies. But now, well, I hate to say it, I'm a bit fascinated with the little rats of the air.

Did you know that you can tell whether the weather is going to turn nasty, by watching the seagulls and where they are sitting? If you see them all gathered up on a beach away from the water and huddled down together, we're about to get some rain. And - the further up the beach, and the more huddled together, the nastier the weather will be.

We watched them sitting on this drainage pipe in Moreton Bay the other day, and noticed that they take off in a pattern. One would fly off, then a certain amount of time later, another would fly away. The more experienced ones take off in a similar pattern and distance from one another, then the teenagers... bless their hearts just randomly take off and the pattern goes to pieces.

We were wondering what was going on, but then we realised that the tide had just come in, and then we noticed the fish jumping, so we figured that they were off in their fishing patterns. Well that's our theory in watching anyway - would love to know more - please do send us a message if you know.