Springwatch

When I got home from work yesterday, I looked out of my window (snooping on the people in the cafe downstairs, as is my wont) and was a little startled to notice something fluffy in the gutter outside my windowsill.  I assumed it was mammalian, but as I leaned over to get a better look I realised it was a baby bird!  Look how cute!

 

It must have fallen (slid?) off the roof - I'm glad the little blighter landed in my gutter and didn't go all the way down to ground level (we're three storeys up).  It's been very windy this week so perhaps he just got blown off the roof?  He was making little cheeping sounds and my heart just melted, I desperately wanted to adopt him!  I had Brontë-like visions of taming him and keeping him on my shoulder, to be my lifelong companion and spirit guide...however, judging from his webbed feet, he was most likely a seagull, which is slightly less romantic, I have to admit.  Still, who can resist a little baby chick, all fluffy and spotty?

Alas, my housemate was the voice of reason - she said that the parents were probably not far away (we have many birds on our roof), and while she agreed that he was immeasurably cute, we concurred that any kind of interfering we did would probably lead to the parents rejecting the little fellow if they should find him again (small mammals also do this - if you touch a baby animal, the scent you leave behind can be sufficient to make the parents suspicious, so they will abandon the baby).  Still, I resolved that if he should still be out there cheeping when I got back from the pub, then I would leave him some kind of snack and maybe a jumper to keep him warm.

I need not have worried though, for who should turn up just as I was about to leave the house?  

That's right, the Peeping Seagull from the other morning!  Turns out he's a she, and she's a Mamma, and she gave me the filthiest look when I came back to the window:

I was just making sure that she was, in fact, the Mamma Seagull, and not a different seagull who might attack the youngster (Bath gulls have a reputation for being vicious, although to be fair I've only ever seen them bully pigeons).  She soon confirmed her identity by regurgitating some worms and feeding the littl'un, which made me happy and sad and slightly squeamish all at the same time.  They're out there now, squeaking and squawking at each other.  I could happily sit and watch them all day long, but I don't thing Mamma Gull appreciates my watchful eye, and it just so happens that I watched The Birds again a couple of weeks ago so I really don't want to mess with her.