Hi folks,

Just wanted to pat myself and co-workers on the back a little. So, bear
with me.

Remember last July 9th, I'd reported a pair of Glaucous-winged Gull chicks
had hatched out on the cobble-strewn roof of the Fourth Floor of the Natural
Resources Building in Olympia? Well, we've been watching them grow,
watching the parents feed them, and watching their antics for the past five
weeks. They've gone from being cute li'l fluffs of mottled down to kind of
ratty pre-teens - - mostly feathered, but still with a fair amount of down
on the head area. Not quite ready to fly.

Well, this morning when I arrived at work, one of my colleagues noted that
there was only one 'chick' on the roof. We watched an adult feed the
remaining chick and speculated what might have happened to its sibling?
About 11am, I went downstairs and poked around the 'sidewalk' area on the
'first floor' level (about a floor + above the street level....). Sure
'nuff, there was junior, giving a pleading "wreeee-wrreeeee-wreeee" call up
to the adult at 5th-floor level. The adult was screaming for all it was
worth (?? Junior! Get back up here!!)....

Well, when I returned from my errand, the chick was still on the sidewalk.
I figured that, even if the parents would feed the chick on the ground, it
was really likely that the chick would have to contend with kids, dogs,
rats, and wondering into the road and getting run over, and/or any number of
life-shortening issues. So, I talked a couple of co-workers (WDFW fish bios
Lisa Wood & Mike Scharpf) into assisting, we surrounded the chick, caught it
without injury to the chick or much injury to ourselves (of course, I banded
it.... 1007-98504 ), called the State's building maintenance person to let
us onto the roof, and returned the kid to the ledge. Within 1/2-hour, the
adults were feeding *both* chicks, and life was back to normal.

The chase showed that the chick wasn't able to sustain flight - it got off
the ground, but only for 10-20 feet at a time while flapping wildly. It'll
be a few more days before this one can transform itself from an ungainly,
gangly chick into a somewhat-more-graceful fledgling. I imagine that the
kid tried to follow a parent over the parapet of the roof following a
feeding. These chicks sometimes get pretty agressive in begging food from
the adults.

When caught, the chick regurgitated its lunch (for those who've never
handled gulls, it's normal for a gull to puke on the person trying to help
it.....) of fairly 'fresh' ghost shrimp. This indicated that the parents
were, indeed, feeding the kid on the ground. Other food items we've seen
'passed' from 'rent to chick have included what appears to be small mussels,
fish (including lots of sticklebacks when there was a die-off in Capitol
Lake) and other sea life. Haven't noticed much 'garbage' from these
urban-nesting gulls.

Anyway, this office-bound paper-pusher had a welcome break from the tedium
of cubicle life. I'll let folks know when the chicks finally fledge from
our little sea bird colony on East Capitol Campus.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net