Hi Tweets,

Richard Rowlett, hilariously and perspicaciously, writes:

>But, what's going on here with juvenile Western Gulls getting gang-banged by
>every horny Western Gull that happens to come along the beach?
(snip)

Waidaminnit. Let's ignore Sex, Lies and Intertidal-Zone Foraging Regurg for
a moment, and look at a much more important question. Where are these SoCal
Western Gulls Larus occidentalis, race wymani, dispersing *to*? Wymani sure
doesn't make it to the Inner Coast (Vcr BC, where we get race occidentalis
adults in winter only and maybe juvs in early autumn)--there's maybe one
record of a wymani here; it was a Western, in winter, sure not anything
else, and it was *really* dark--and the Outer Coast (Vcr Is) seems to get
only occidentalis. So where does wymani go? And why is there virtually no
interbreeding/grading between the two?

>Whether or not this
>is a true sexual liaison we really can't tell. It could be a form of 'hands
>on' sex education I suppose.

This sounds like an aberrant individual, Richard; in years of gull-watching,
I've never--categorerically, never--seen an adult gull mount anybody but
another adult gull, and I'll have to pass on whether the contact was
opposite- or same-sex: that's their business, given their plumage
similarity. This young gull's precocity suggests an unusual upbringing or
education (consider obligatory sniggering classroom joke or jokes made
here), one perhaps involving being orphaned before a full behavioral
training suite could be transmitted from the parent(s), or may be the result
of being 'trained' by an equally singular adult. I'm just guessing. If, from
the point of view of the first-year bird, food had been the result, then it
may have learned that allowing sexual contact from an adult results in food
enough times to make it worth repeating. The human analogue might be that a
kid thinks, hey, I give some creep access to my body and I get *money*!
Cool! little realising the disfunctionality of the adult's demands. Gulls
recognise no such morality--as Dennis pointed out correctly, they are not
people--so solicited and repeated adult/first-year coupling is at an extreme
end of a behavioral contimuum.

It might also be worth trying to age the individuals which do this; birds in
Alternate plumage aren't necessarily adult (sexually mature) birds but can
be late adolescents. It may be that Western Gull adults don't bother with
Larry/Lolita but unattached late adolescents do.

>I've always kind of humored myself in imagining that pinnipeds, especially
>elephant seals, were the reincarnation of especially 'bad people'. They, and
>especially those in the Antarctic regions, lay around all day, days and weeks
>on end, packed enmass in stinking disgusting excrement infested mud wallows,
>covered with flys, belching and farting, drooling, and blowing yellow-green
>snot from their noses. These scenes are truely a sight to behold if not a
>sheer image of Hell on Earth.

Oh, so you've visited the Canadian Senate, have you, Richard? Oh, jeez, that
one was really too easy....

>Next up on 'Springer' -- juvenile male gray whale sex orgies at Piedras
>Blancas. Seven juvenile males engaged in a ball of sexual decadence for
>several hours 100-200 meters off the point, flailing erect peni to the wind
>for all of God and the world to see, and more, while we can do nothing but
>remain spellbound and stand in awe....... Whoops! ...never mind; wrong
>listserv. Better post this one on the 'gay animal porn' website... if there
>is one... which there probably is.
>**** Adults only! <A HREF="http://weber.u.washington.edu/~dvictor/">click

Bwahahahaaa!!!! Funniest post I've read on Tweeters in *ages*! *Thank* you,
Richard! Welcome back!!!

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada]
mprice at mindlink.net