Gathering gu;;s

Yesterday afternoon on our way to Adelaide’s for a coffee break we saw a flock of seagulls gathering outside the pharmacy. “Maybe there’s a special on seagull prescriptions today,” Nyel said.

What they were actually after looked like a small pile of orange-ish seeds of some kind – or at least that was my drive-by impression. Whatever it was must have been tasty enough for the word to spread so quickly. There were even two crows in their midst and my mind immediately flew to the old children’s nursery rhyme:

One is for sorrow,
Two is for mirth,
Three’s for a wedding,
Four’s for a birth,
Five’s for silver,
Six is for gold;
Seven’s a secret,
Not to be told;
Eight’s for heaven,
Nine’s for hell
And ten’s for the devil’s own sel’!

Crows at Forsythea

I was glad there were two. Not that I am superstitious, of course! But two I could manage and there was no way to count all those gulls as we drove by. Besides, I don’t know of any nursery rhymes, auguries or otherwise, that have to do with seagulls.

Raven by Greg’s Mom

We don’t see as many seagulls on the bay side of the Peninsula as on the ocean side. But we do see lots of crows. Even though a group of them is called a “murder” and many people fear them (presumably for their black feathers), I enjoy their rambunctious antics and miss hearing them when I’m away from Oysterville for any length of time. When doing a little research about crows, I was glad to find that they are very caring, social creatures and are said to be among the smartest animals on the planet.

Plus… let’s hear it for Crow Art! (Raven Art, too!) If you haven’t caught up with Pat Fagerland’s cheery crow images or the sculpture of the raven by Greg Rogers’ mom at the Oysterville Store, you have missed some great local collectibles. Just sayin’…