A seagull was caught red-handed tucking into a particularly spicy meal. The incident, which culminated with the bird crashing into a wall, took place in Hove, East Sussex, at the end of last week. It was recorded after Conlett White set up a candid camera to film housemate Richard Hammond eating a special dinner he had made for him.
Unbeknown to Mr Hammond, Mr White had spiked the meal, including meat, salad and chips, with mounds of black pepper. Mr White, 30, was hoping Mr Hammond would get a shock when he ate it. Instead, the seagull, nicknamed Stevie, sneaked in and gobbled it down.
YouTube link.
Mr Hammond, 30, said: “Stevie seems to really love it. He is just munching away. Conlett cooked me some dinner for a change – but, thinking he was funny, put a load of pepper in it and left a camera hidden away to catch my reaction. But what he ended up with was not quite what he was expecting.
“We now can’t even have our windows open in this hot weather without Stevie coming in and munching all the food. I have lived here for five years – five summers – but this year they [seagulls] seem to be a lot more daring. I’m thinking of getting a pretend eagle to put out on the windowsill to keep them away.” He said since the video was taken Stevie had been back and was now a regular visitor.
4 comments:
Window screens haven't been invented yet?
Lurker111
(Though screens weren't a deterrent when a hawk, probably chasing a squirrel, sliced his way into our screened porch one time. He managed to slice his way back out, too.)
Pepper doesn't bother birds -in fact, putting pepper seeds in your birdfeeder will repel squirrels without affecting the birds. But it does explain why the meal on the counter was being filmed.
Yeah, one of the reasons peppercorns contain capsaicin may be to ensure they're dispersed by birds instead of mammals. For all the gull cares, he might as well have "spiked" the meal with mayonnaise.
(Peppercorns contain piperine, but it's the same principle.)
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