Recently, due to many chores I had little time for Hive. I kept on photographing birds and gathering material for posting. It is about time to start sharing and being more active.
Of course, the #SMaP contest never stopped running and I will always find time for it.
If you are one of the participants in the weekly contest in the Feathered Friends Community - Show Me A Photo, #SMaP in short, you may recall I mentioned about the black seagull and promised to tell about it.
It all started with a message from a friend of mine. Julia was finishing work and on her way back home she saw a strange bird she managed to photograph with her phone and she sent me the photo asking if I knew what it was. I was surprised to see a completely black seagull. I am no expert or ornithologist. I start looking for some clue in the net and soon I found more photos and video clip of others who encountered that bird. Next days the photos of the seagull were everywhere in the social media, local news and recently on the national TV. It becomes a mascot of the town. People were asked to name it. There were so many names and what I found is a short list and soon I hope the bird will have its name.
Since I had no chance to spot it, I use the photo sent by my friend.
Credit photo - Julia Ilieva
I went in the center of the where the bird was seen and spent a solid hour looking for it. It was before the heat, but still it was getting too hot and I could not risk to stay out any longer.If all goes well with the seagull, I will try again after sometime. But for now, it will be madness. Although it seems the exceptionally hot days when the temperature reached 40°C are over, we still suffer from the heat.
There were many comments and opinions about the colour. It was said that the seagull raised interest in other countries too. Ornitologists recon the bird is melanist. This is the opposite of the albino. The exsesive quantity of melanin changes the colour of the feathers in black. This is a mutation, that happens in other species too. Other opinion - the bird was abused by vandals who painted her. I tend to believe the melanist theory. Part of me doesn't want to believe somebody could be so cruel to abuse the seagull. Still it was a puzzle, because nobody recalls seeing a black seagull before.
There were also speculations of an omen, but I am not superstitious. A rare bird like that should be kept safe and from what I saw on the news, people were feeding her and it got a lot of attention once being spotted.
If I have more news about the black seagull and my own photo, I will keep you posted.
Until next time and happy birding!
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