while we often admire the beauty of nature it is easy to overlook the fact the it is relentlessly brutal. the connection between the beauty and the brutality is direct, as expressed in the well known phrase: survival of the fittest. the beauty is the result of the struggle. in nature there are no guarantees of survival, quite the opposite it is a continuously ongoing challenge. while there are many examples of kind hearted people and institutions caring for injured wild animals, the chances of becoming one of the lucky ones are slim. this herring gull lost one of it feet and nobody is going to take it under their wing. i took these shots in the summer when the living is comparatively easy but winter is approaching.
many times you may see a seagull standing on one foot. it's common behavior in order to limit the loss of warmth. so if you can only see one leg the gull is probably fine and healthy. but here we can clearly see both legs and one of them is missing the webbed foot. the most common causes of this are that the foot was caught on some fishing line or plastic or something like that and it ended up cutting off the circulation of blood and eventually fell off. or maybe the gull was swimming in the water by paddling with its feet and a fish bit the foot off. or maybe a cat jumped it and the gull flew up but a split second too late and the cat caught the foot in its mouth. or maybe it got into a serious fight or the foot got stuck somehow... anyway, whatever the cause life is tough as a wild animal. so let's give this footless feathered friend some respect