Saturday, April 19, 2008

Gulls Just Wanna Have Fun

Wednesday was the first really warm day of the season. The thermometer reached a sunny 23C (74F) which prompted me to take a walk up to a small man-made lake a few kilometers from home. A pair of seagulls appeared to be dramatizing their young romance solely for my entertainment. Here's their story in pictures. Please remember to click the photos to enlarge.


Once upon a time...

Boy meets gull.



First fight.



Boy loses Gull.



Alone.



Broken-hearted.



Boy drinks to forget.



And gets high.



Gull comes back.



Happily ever after.


42 comments:

Leah J. Utas said...

That was funny-sweet and a good photo story.

Anonymous said...

Happy until there's one herring between them!
Excellent photo essay!

Hilary said...

"Boy drinks to forget and gets high" too funny...love the pics, as usual.

the Bag Lady said...

Well. How kind of them to put on a performance for your benefit! Do you think they did it because they thought you looked gull-ible?
(there's a knee-slapper for you, eh?)

Loved your photo-essay. (hate the fact that it's so warm there and so friggin' cold here, though!)

Daryl said...

Wonderful .. you are one of the best wildlife photogs I know and clever too ..

Reb said...

What a lovely performance they put on for you. I am glad you captured it for the rest of us. Great photos as always.

Kappa no He said...

"Boy Meets Gull"...HA HA HA HA HA HA HO HA HO HA!!

Love it.

Daisy said...

Oh, good one!

Hilary said...

• Thanks, Leah. I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

• Yes, Seamus. Then it will be all "Not tonight dear, I have a haddock." ;) Thanks for the kind words.

• Thanks for stopping by, Hilary.

• Good one, Baggie! I deserved that because one good tern deserves another... ;) Hope it warms up there for you soon.

• Thanks so much, Daryl. :)

• Thank you, Reb. They were fun to watch.. more so to capture... even more so to share. :)

• Thanks, Kappa.. I'm glad it gave you a laugh. :)

• Thanks Daisy Jo. :)

Tamie said...

You're funny... lol.

Russell said...

So, so good!! I laughed at the one that said "First fight"!! Now, you have a talent, I must say.

You take it for granted to do such things - but don't. To take a series of pictures and create a story like this is a gift.

Wow - 74 degrees??!! I am not sure what part of Ontario you are in but I used to spend time near Rossport, Ontario on Lake Superior and we rarely saw the 70s!!

Take care and thanks for a most enjoyable post.

Cath said...

That is really good (very realistic!) and the shots of the gulls are good.

But the one that made me gasp is the "gull returns" - you caught her just as she is landing and the shot is just PERFECT and AWESOME. Love it. Brilliant. I wanna do one like this!
Has Frank seen it? What magic do you have for flying fish and flying birds? It is not coincidence this - that is talent.

david mcmahon said...

Creative. Brilliant. Memorable.

Nuffin' else I can say.

And what a wonderful post title.

Frank Baron said...

Well, gully gee! That was fun! :)

Anonymous said...

GREAT play on words. I agree with David; you get the prize! I'll be back to visit soon. Come and visit my blog too.

Hilary said...

• Thanks, TKWI. :)

• Thanks so much for your very kind words, Russell. They're very much appreciated. I've never been as far north as you've mentioned, but I can imagine it would still be pretty cool there at this time. I'm in Southern Ontario, not far at all from Toronto. Thanks for stopping by. :)

• Thank you very much, Cath. I was sitting on the dock for about 20 minutes while snapping these shots. Mostly, I just kept the camera focused on that high-traffic log. The rest was luck. I never had the "story" in mind while I was shooting. That's just something I decided at the last minute while trying to choose one or two photos to post.

And yup, Frank has seen them. I make him sit through all my photos. ;)

• Thank you very much, David. Your kind words mean a lot to me. Thank you also for your "Post of the Day" recommendation... always very much appreciated. :)

• Thanks, Frank. You always know how to make this gull blush! ;)

• Thanks for your kind words, Bachelor. I'm glad you stopped by for a visit. I've bookmarked your site and hope to return soon as well. :)

Stace said...

What a cute story! Getting high, nice :) I might be able to start doing wildlife photos too soon, since I've moved to the capital city of Australia which is more or less bushland with some buildings.

dot said...

I came here from David's blog. He hit the nail on the head chosing this for the post of the day. Wonderful story and pictures!!

Jo said...

LOL! That was hilaryous! Beautiful shots, Hil...I love what you did with them---nature can be so dramatic :) So glad you're having warm weather finally! Is Frank running around in shorts yet?

Shammickite said...

That was so much fun! I'm happy that they are reunited. So now we can expect the patter of tiny feet... er, I mean wings, at the pond.

Celebration of Life said...

Congrats on David's Award! Is that perhaps Jonathan Livingston?

Thérèse said...

The word "mocking bird" caught my eye: for a week now we have one outside our bedroom's window singing and singing and singing like crzy and making us laugh even if it's 3am. What a treat! We even recorded its voice, so many octaves, so much to say. They can be a pest too: one year at ASU (AZ) students were attacked and injured by them...and can you imagine?
I'll be back...with more time to spend...

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you had the gull to photograph their courtship like that. Just shocking!

Really great post--I still don't understand how you get wild birds to take direction and pose like that. I can't take a picture of a barn without it moving!

Hilary said...

• Hiya Stace. I'll be looking forward to that for sure. I trust all is good for you and Aidan in Canberra? :)

• Thank you so much, Dot. I sure hope you'll be back again soon. :)

• Thanks, Jo! Shorts.. FUNNY! Really.. I mean really funny! Ask him about it sometime. ;)

• Thank you Ex-S.. you just never know! :)

• Thanks COL, it might be Jonathan.. after all she did come Bach, didn't she? ;)

• Thank you, Therese. I'm very surprised to hear about mockingbirds attacking people.. but you just never know. I'm glad you enjoyed the post and hope you will indeed be back soon. :)

• Too funny, Crabby. It's mostly luck, a bit of patience and pretending that I know what I'm doing. Thanks always for stopping by. :)

Debra said...

Funny! Nice pictures too!

Sandi McBride said...

Simply beautiful...I'm a sucker for sea gulls. David sure can pick 'em! Congrats
Sandi

Anonymous said...

That was so lovely, how clever of you to capture the images the way you did. Beautiful.

Crystal xx

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

This is priceless.

Tink said...

Aw. She came back! :D

Suldog said...

Lovely! I enjoyed that immensely! Which is more than you'll be able to say. As promised, you are now a character in the stupidest play ever written. Well, actually, I didn't promise to make you a character in the stupidest play ever written, but that's how it turned out. Come see for yourself:

http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Awesome pictures..... about the commentary, you certainly sound like "our father's daughter", or did you do it for the halibut?? (remember??)Love, Andi

Hilary said...

• Thanks, Debra. I'm glad you stopped by. :)

• Thanks so much, Sandi. They're neat creatures. David's pretty cool too! ;)

• Thank you, Crystal. Much appreciated. I hope you'll visit again soon. :)

• Thanks muchly, Jenn. :)

• Hey Tink! Essential for a happy ending. ;)

• Suldog, you did a great job with your play considering there were so many totally unrelated lines (Suldog offered to make characters out of everyone who left two lines of dialog in his comments section. Head on over to his blog to see what he did with it). Thanks, Suldog. :)

• Thanks Andi, I sure do remember. There are several such puns trout this blog. ;)

Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

haha......sweet! reminded me of a blog i made or our wedding a li'l more than a year back...here:
http://swatiandarka.blogspot.com/

loved all the images.but my fav. gotta be the very first one..with gull in flight.....and yes, love the title of the post too :)

Kat said...

That was brilliant! I love it!

Thank you for your kind comment on my post. I appreciate it.

elasticwaistbandlady said...

If only all romance stories were in the picture book format.

No, wait. Maybe that wouldn't be a good thing.

elasticwaistbandlady said...

You know what else I loved about this post? Your clever, clever use of clever, clever puns!

Hilary said...

• That was a very cute post, Moi. Thanks for sharing. And thanks for your kind words. :)

• Thanks so much Kathryn. Please come back again soon. :)

• Thank you, EWBL. I'll take clever. :)

Carolyn said...

Great story. I've noticed your comments on other blogs and your puns always make me laugh out loud. I just had to stop by and say thanks for all the giggles. Cheers, eh.

Hilary said...

Thanks Carolyn, you made my day. Please come back soon. :)

Unknown said...

LOL... now how cool is that? they are naturals tho, it's easy making captions for these guys.... and fun too!

do you mind if i add you to my fav list.... i love your photos!

Hilary said...

Thanks, Carol. I'd love that. I think your own photos are amazing. I've put your blog on my reader now. :)

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