100 days – Day 31
100 days – Day 31: Flying Vermin
A few years ago, Dumfries, which is plagued by these swooping and sometimes vicious gulls, which have been known to attack pets and people, employed a company with hawks. These birds of prey would be allowed to circle the skies above the Town, and frighten off the gulls.
I remember my wife, Helen, admiring one of these beautiful creatures – on display with the hawker – in the town centre. A wee boy was fascinated with this bird, and asked its keeper, “When you let it up into the sky, does it come back to you?”
The guy, very deadpan, replied, “No, son, we just get a new one every day!”
GRAEME DONOHOE
DUMFRIES is under attack from marauding seagulls. Politicians were forced to hold a special “gull summit” in the town to work out a way to tackle the menace of aggressive birds.
Environment Minister Mike Russell has vowed to “get tough on seagulls and the causes of seagulls”. Weary postal workers now say swooping gulls are a bigger danger than DOGS.
Gull force … our man braves the streets of Dumfries with a snack
Tags: 100 days, bird droppings, birds of prey, Dumfries, Flying Vermin, Gulls, Hawks, RCZ car
About meenister
An ordained Church of Scotland Minister since 1974. Started off in Doune which is near Stirling, before moving to Trinidad for four years; on my return to Scotland, I was a rural minister in Perthshire and then was asked to become Minister at St.Michael's Inveresk where I spent eleven happy years. A short ministry in Guernsey followed and since 1999, I was a full time healthcare Chaplain in the town of Dumfries in SW Scotland, retiring from that post in December 2012. I started this blog on 6 May 2012, soon after my wife, Helen, was diagnosed with secondary cancer - it was a sort of diversion and still is, following her death on 16 June. I hope it shows that there is a lighter side to religion, that it's not gloom and doom and that we can sometimes laugh at ourselves in a self-effacing way. Some posts are, however, I hope provoking and food for thought.Archives
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