Gully C. Gully and the Passionate Ponderer

I first met Gully C. Gully about ten years ago on the beach at St. George Island in the Florida Panhandle, the Forgotten Coast.  He seemed so different from other seagulls that just kept milling around begging for food.  Gully was the quiet type, walking to the edge of the Gulf waters and just staring out at sea.  I was fascinated with him and couldn't stop watching his every movement.  He often came near me, but never to beg.  We bonded in “ponderment.”  Because of him, I was determined to learn more about seagulls, even if Gully didn’t fit the seagull norm.

I learned that seagulls could live to be 25, but that 10 was probably more the average.  I also learned that when fresh water is hard to find, seagulls can drink salt water and often choose to stay near large bodies of water.  I wondered what Gully liked to eat, other than fish or bread or rodents.  I guessed that he liked to keep it simple—my choice as well.

Beyond that, I was wishing I could ask Gully where he went at night and if he came back to the same spot every day.  Gully no doubt found somewhere remote to spend his evenings.  Seagulls are not known to live near humans and Gully seemed more the solitary type.  I certainly could relate! 

Even though seagulls can travel thousands of miles to find better pickins’, Gully had a perfect place to hang out and the other seagulls didn’t seem to bother with him.  St. George Island is one of the most beautiful places imaginable.  I didn’t want to leave—why would he?  I was envious.  My simple little pal had it made!

I often thought of myself as the “passionate ponderer.”  Gully C. Gully was definitely my match in the seagull world.

So Gully, my pal, here’s to you and all your buddies, courtesy of Ogden Nash, one of my favorite poets.  If you ever have a yearning to get away and travel north, check out Lake Superior, another beautiful place to ponder to your heart’s content.

Hark to the whimper of the seagull,

He weeps because he’s not an ea-gull

Suppose you were, you silly seagull.

Could you explain it to your she-gull.