WHEN THE GULLS CAME

THE GULLS

When the Beach holiday camp was demolished the gulls fled from the ir
nests in the derelict chalets and built new homes in the surrounding
streets.

The inhabitants of "The Willows" looked up at their avian neighbours
with curiosity, complaining of the noise but were blissfully unaware of
the trouble in store for them.

One nest had been built on the roof of a garage and the parent gulls
attacked the householder every time she came back from shopping. To the
suggestion that she sweep the nests away she replied, "Oh No! I
couldn't. Not until the nest is empty."

Most of the gulls had chosen inaccessible sites for their nests and
there were many built between the chimneys of surrounding houses. Eggs
were laid and, in due course, new chicks emerged, looking rather like
large balls of grey wool.

Bringing up a family on the steeply sloping roofs is perilous. Squeezed
between chimney pots, inches away from death, the parent birds did
their best to protect their chicks. But accidents will happen. Some
chicks were seen clinging to gutters, crying frantically for help.
Others slid down and fell to an instantaneous death on the
concrete.

But two of the chicks survived their fall and found their way into a
garden at the end of the cul-de-sac, It was a haven for them, an oasis
of green in the noisy, dusty, perilous world outside.

The garden belonged to an old man and when he came out to collect his
milk he found the two fat grey balls of wool perambulating on his lawn.
He named them Tweedledum and Tweedledee, opened the gate, and began to
shoo them into the road.

He heard a clucking noise, like the sound of a disapproving maiden aunt
confronted by a nude on Channel Four. The clucking intensified, grew
louder. faster and more aggressive. He turned round and saw the parents
of the grey balls sitting on his neighbour's garage roof. The male bird
flapped his wings threateningly, then swooped over him, low enough to
brush his hair and the old man fled to the safety of his kitchen. When
they had gone he put on his war-time helmet and coaxed the chicks out
of the gate and into the road. But by the time he came out to water his
seedlings the chicks had performed the apparently impossible task of
squeezing through the railings.

Their efforts to reach safety were understandable for half way down
the street there was danger. Tom the cat lurked behind his gate,
peering out at the bundles of feathers strutting on the lawn and
licking his lips with anticipation.

Whenever the chicks were hungry they called for their parents. After a
time the flow of hormones that governed the parental behaviour changed
and they no longer brought food. The chicks cried out with all their
strength, throwing their whole bodies whole bodies into the effort.
When no-one came they looked for food themselves, fighting viciously
for possession of a single blade of grass. They squeezed through the
gate and quickly learned how to dismember the black rubbish bags and
spread the contents on the pavements. There was usually enough food in
them to satisfy their raging hunger.

When Tom the cat saw the twins in his territory he began his
preliminary stalk. But the gulls on their roof-tops set up such a
screaming that the residents of the "Willows" were deafened and the
cat, quite unnerved, slunk inside again.

A few days later, Tweedledum and Tweedledee made their first attempts
at flying. They managed the railings and then discovered how to reach
the garage roof. But flying down again was another matter and there
were more unanswered cries for help.

Tom the cat had not given up. Next day he concealed himself beneath his
master's car and kept a close eye on his prey. Quite oblivious to
commands from his mistress, he heard neither the car doors slamming,
nor the engine starting up. So when the wheels crushed the tip of his
tail he gave a agonised howl and rushed out.

"What were you doing under there, you bad cat?" cried his mistress, "It
serves you right for chasing the birds. Now we'll have to take you to
the vet."

And when Tom returned he wore a large white bandage round his tail that
signalled his presence to the all the birds in the neighbourhood.

Now the chicks were undergoing their transformation to adulthood . The
grey was fading into white and the body was changing shape, becoming
slender and streamlined to prepare them for battling through Atlantic
storms.

As soon as his flying was good enough Tweedledum set out from the
garden to fly the short distance to the North Wales coast. Tweedledee
took the fateful decision to stay behind, intending to follow his
brother the next day. But during the night an on-shore wind developed
and when he set out in the morning he was blown back onto the garage
roof. He tried again and again. All afternoon he tried

until his strength failed and the wind swept him away.

And in the morning, the old man saw the bird in the middle of Seabank
Drive, squashed, as he told his neighbour, flat as a mat.

It was time for the rooftop nests to be abandoned. When the avian
tenants had flown, the human householders prepared for next year's
conflict by driving sharp stakes between the chimney stacks. The old
man walked in his garden and life in the "Willows" returned to
normal.
____________________________