07/11/2024
Western Gulls may be an unholy terror for our colony drone surveys during the late nesting season, but we have a soft spot in our hearts for these feisty large gulls. One WEGU pair holds a special place in our hearts, the pair living atop San Francisco Ferry Building Gate B. For over 12 years they have needed no help raising chicks on their little rooftop, but yesterday they did. Because they nest much later than the Seaside Heermann’s Gulls, their 3 chicks are still downy and devoid of flight feathers. One of them had fallen down to the platform below, wandering about near the ferry ramp while hundreds of ferry passengers walked past it, some of them photographing this adorable but helpless big baby. A sibling on the roof above flapped its stubby wings and hopped in the breeze, demonstrating how this chick must have fallen. After consulting with we determined it wasn’t safe there with all the pedestrian and vehicle traffic and land predators, so I got my rescue kit (i.e., rode the BART train back to the East Bay and then drove back to the Ferry Building) and caught the chick in a cat carrier. Of course, it alarm called and immediately both parents and about a half dozen other angry Western Gull adults hovered ominously around me while I loaded it in. Somehow they didn’t attack or even crap on me as I apologized to them and whisked the chick off for a 1.5 hour road trip to IBR. The chick, who was plump and healthy, will now finish growing up at IBR with other Western Gull chicks already in care before being released. Once I got home and saw my own human chicks I felt rather awful for the gull parents. As far as I can tell they have never lost a chick in 12 years, and I wished there was a way to reassure them that this chick would grow up safely while they raised the other two. But at the end of the day it was the right thing to do, and we are so very grateful that IBR exists to provide a safe place for this chick to grow up. Please consider supporting them and all of their vital rehabilitation work.
