John Cassidy, age 9, of Elkins Park, Penn
Do seagulls fly back to nest at night?
"‑Yaarki" screamed the graceful sea gull when Andy arrived to ask him a few questions. He flew around a few times, then let down his legs like landing gear. Soon he was perched like a statue on a post in the Delaware river. "I'm happy to be interviewed," said the lovely white birds but it must be short. This is my day for garbage duty. My friends are off shore fishing, It’s my turn to help clean up the stuff that untidy people throw into the water„ Most of it I can eat that’s why they call me a scavanger bird. What else can I tell you?
"Well," said Andy Who was standing on the shore. "Would you please tell something about your home life?" "My home is the sky, over the sea and over the shore," was the reply, 'But what about your nest," asked our little reporter. "I’m a full grown bird and naturally I left my nest as soon as I could fly," was the indignant reply.
"But don't you go home to a nest to sleep at night?" Andy asked the white bird, "Of course not," the sea gull laughed, "I can sleep right here on this post if I liken but I have a far better place to go, I prefer to doze sitting on the water." "Surely that must be uncomfortably wet," said our Andy with a worried look.
"Not at all," said the sea gull. "My feathers are well oiled to keep out the water, See my webbed feet are built for swimming and paddling in the water, I'm probably light enough to float anyway, It's most comfortable just sitting on the water. How I pity the poor birds who have to sleep in trees hanging on for dear life. I even pity the poor people who sleep in beds, I have the roomiest and most gentle cradle in the world." "Cradle?" said Andy, puzzled. "Of courses Can you imagine anything more comfortable than being rocked up and down on the heaving waves? It's so relaxing that I take one or two rest periods on the water every day,"
"But where did you sleep when you were a chick?" asked Andy, "Oh, I had a nest for the first few months of my life" said the gull with a big smile. It was on a rocky island in the sea. There were hundreds of other nests and young gulls around. We gulls like company, you know, and form colonies during the nesting season,'
"Did you ever return to your nest?" said Andy, "My wife and I go back every year to build a nest, of seaweeds among the rocks, said the gull proudly, "We like to bring up a family of three each season. Feeding them and teaching them takes all our time for awhile. Some people say that though we are very kind to our own young gulls we tend to be a little strict with our neighbors children. Our nests after all are close together, It would never do if we let the neighbor t s children steal our food.
"Once they can fly, the youngsters are on their own. They fly over the seas and the shores and sometimes join us around the ports and harbors, All sleep cradled on the rocking wavey cold weather and storms do not bother them. The fiercer the stormy the more their cradle rocks. Now Yaarki. I must bid you goodbye. Some careless person has thrown a doughnut into the water." Off flew the beautiful white gull to gobble it up.