WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT!! I’m not kidding folks; this one is full of graphic descriptions of a carcass and some serious cursing due to my anger. In general I had a fabulous, week-long, birthday. However, there was ONE little event that threatened to mar the bliss. Rich and I went to Union Point Park in New Bern, just to watch the birds, take some pictures, and just have fun being with each other. That part was awesome. But while there, we stumbled upon a carcass of a gull. This wouldn’t be unusual except for the fact that this carcass had obviously been there for at least a couple of days. The eye cavities were already empty, (except for a few opportunistic maggots), rigor had come and gone, and the stench was…well…I’d rather not describe that. I just ate. My anger was piqued. How could rational adults just walk by this carcass and leave it sitting there? Granted, Bird Flu isn’t as bad as most people, thanks to sensationalist media, think it is, but a carcass like that, in a public park, where children had been playing not THREE minutes before, is a health hazard. I don’t think I need to list all of the diseases that a normal, adult gull is exposed to in its daily life, let alone its death. Now, because I am a bit of an animal freak, I set about looking for a way of humanely disposing of this creature. I do happen to always carry gloves in my med kit in my car, but my car was about 300yards away. As Rich (who was a trooper putting up with my investigation, he even filmed it with his digital camera, that man just gets better and better) and I walked to the car, the bright idea came upon me that “hey, this is a dog friendly park, they have poop bags here” so I just grabbed a couple of those, wrapped my hands up, and proceeded to examine the bird. I’m hoping that by the time I post this, I will have the video available for all of you who care to see it, but until then: The bird was a female, adult gull, no obvious injuries; no signs of impact present, wings were in full flight order. So without a necropsy, I have no idea why it died. I can hazard a guess, as when I palpated the gull’s belly, it was firm in most places, except RIGHT where its stomach would be. That was a big spot of mush. Very distended. Either the gull was extraordinarily stupid and ate itself to death, *which is almost impossible*, or someone had fed that gull something it shouldn’t have been eating. Like Alka-Seltzer. Used to see birds with this type of death all the time when I volunteered at a wildlife shelter. So at this point, I am SO mad I can’t see straight. But like I said, without a necropsy, I can’t be sure, so my anger is mostly unwarranted. I placed the bird into some of the bags, wrapped up tightly, and laid it in a trash receptacle that I know was taken away the next day. (This was after sunset at this point, and the park was closing, it’s better than leaving the bird out for kids to play with) It saddened me to see that the birds that frequent the park have become so humanized that they’ll eat anything you toss up at them. They’ve become so used to being fed, that they have lost a lot of their own protective instincts. *heaving a huge sigh* I promise to climb off my soap box about it and not bring it up again, but damnit, it really pissed me off. The rest of the night was amazing, as were the rest of my birthday celebrations in general. Rich and I had a great time in NewBern on Monday after the whole “bird disposal”, and the Boys came over and we played a couple of rousing games of Scene It and Shout About Movies!. It was awesome. Tuesday I had birthday dinner with my family, and it was great spending some quality time with them. I don’t see them as often as I’d like to. Wednesday I drove my happy butt to Jacksonville to have dinner with Gwen, and we had a total blast. Thursday Chris and Heather had Rich and me over for dinner *OMG Heather can COOK!! Still loving the ziti Heather!!* And we all played Pictionary. I also had ONE too many Pina Colodas…but that’s a whole nother story! Just remember all, alcohol is truth serum, and should only be imbibed with those you love. They won’t kill you the next day. Friday morning it was back to work for me, and here I sit, at 10:17am on Saturday, just waiting on my break time when I can hook up my lappy to a Wi-Fi that isn’t secured and post to you lovely people. Yep. Happy Carissa.
First Impressions of the Gull [0:45m]:
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