John and Tweeters,



There are other possible explanations for the gull's death. Many years ago,
when I was a graduate student at the University of BC, someone brought a
dead gull in to the Cowan Vertebrate Museum. They said the gull had just
been flying along, then crashed into a parking lot, apparently stone dead.
Wayne Campbell was in charge of the museum at the time, and on a hunch, he
opened up the bird's bill. The throat was completely stuffed with bread. We
concluded that the bird had choked to death in mid-flight. This could have
been what happened to your bird, John-it may never have hit the wires!



Wayne C. Weber

Delta, BC

contopus at telus.net







From: tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of John
Puschock
Sent: December-11-10 5:03 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] Gull electrocuted in Seattle



Hi all,

While waiting at a light on Boren Avenue in the Yesler Terrace section of
Seattle this afternoon (12/11/10), I watched an immature Glaucous-winged
Gull flying down the road towards the intersection. Suddenly it just
dropped straight down onto the road. It apparently hit the electric bus
wires. I didn't see any actual contact with the wires, and it seems odd
that the gull would have hit the wires -- it didn't look like it had any
intention of landing on them or anything else; it was in full flight mode --
so maybe the electricity arced when the gull got close. Maybe someone in
Tweeterdom with a better understanding of such things can confirm that this
would be possible. It was raining at the time, FWIW.

Anyway, electrocution seems to be the most reasonable explanation of what
happened, rather than some other cause of sudden death. The gull did not
move at all while falling -- other than the falling motion, obviously -- or
after hitting the ground, so it presumably died instantly, though there
wasn't much time to judge whether it was alive or dead. The traffic light
had just changed from red to green when this happened, and the gull dropped
down in the left lane right in front of the first car going through the
intersection, which promptly ran over it with its driver side wheels...and
the second car did the same, so if it wasn't dead when it hit the ground, it
was soon after. Neither driver ran over it intentionally. They just didn't
have enough time to react.

John Puschock
Wedgwood, Seattle
g_g_allin at hotmail.com
http://www.zbirdtours.com