Seagulls: Friendly Shore Staple or Menaces in Disguise?

     Every shore town has them; the grey feathered, wailing birds that are the bane of a beachgoer's existence.

     My love-hate relationship with seagulls started on the Wildwood Boardwalk when I was six-years-old. It was a crisp night and I was wearing my new red Wildwood, NJ sweat shirt and carrying my favorite stuffed dog when, all of a sudden, I felt something plop onto my head. I reached up and discovered it was a wet, sticky substance: seagull poop. A seagull had pooped on my head! I started crying and my mother told me it was good luck when a seagull pooped on your head. I didn’t believe her and was forced to spend the rest of the night with the remnants of seagull poop in my hair.

    That incident started an undeclared war which has yet to end. Sometimes my encounters with seagulls are innocent enough. When I was child and my family vacationed in Cape May I would feed the seagulls from the porch of the Family Fun Arcade where we ate lunch, blatantly disobeying both my parents and the metal signs that read, “DON”T FEED THE SEAGULLS.” The seagulls were polite and only took what food I threw them.

     However, last summer the war escalated. Last July I was sitting on a bench on the Ocean City Boardwalk facing the beach and eating funnel cake. I was unable to finish it so I decided to throw it to a lone seagull who was walking on the sand. As soon as I threw it all of his seagull friends converged and, upon discovering there was no more food, they moved as one and decided to chase me.

    Two weeks later I was on the beach in Ocean City, sitting on my pink Mexican blanket and eating my Wawa hoagie. I was talking to my sister and not paying attention to my food. All of a sudden a seagull swooped down and grabbed my hoagie out of my hand. I didn’t even realize what happened until my sister, who had a look of shock on her face, burst out laughing and pointed to my empty hand. I glanced over and saw the seagull thief happily devouring my turkey hoagie a few feet away.

    Lesson learned: don't feed or tempt the seagulls otherwise they will attack. I no longer feed the seagulls and so far there have been no incidents. However, the summer is far from over and the seagulls still have time to attack.

A seagull eatting a discarded bag of chips in a parking lot behind the Ocean City Boardwalk.