On 19/02/2008, Jan England <> wrote:
...."Apparently the Gull is still hale and hearty."
Wasn't there the suggestion early on that this bird was sick and
couldn't swallow? I have noticed that reports of vagrants often
suggest that the bird in question is sick and then no more is heard of
this suggestion.
Apart from trans-Atalantic vagrants to the Scilly Isles and similar
places that are literally harried to death by hoards of twitchers, I
suggest that any vagrant bird (or any other) that is studied intently
for some time is likely to exhibit behaviour that the observer hasn't
observed previously and this is likely to be interpreted as the bird
being sick.
When the Powerful Owl was observed roosting in the Australian National
Botanical Gardens in Canberra last year various people speculated that
it was sick. This was based mainly on the absence of dropped prey and
droppings under its perch. It was then discovered that the ANBG staff
were cleaning these up each morning beofre the Gardens opened ( 8-| ).
John Leonard
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