A seagull didn’t like the look of his reflection in the bookshop window one day. He pecked furiously at the window, so much so I thought maybe he had taken offence to me sat inside. A new bookseller on his block.
The seagull came back day after day, getting braver and more inquisitive each time until eventually he hopped over the threshold and strutted beak-first into Clemo Books. He took offence to the door mat, hated that thing, and would try to drag it out into the street. Next the door stopper, he did drag that out into the street.
The first time he walked into the bookshop was exhilarating. I’m in here on my own all day and in the wintertime it’s quite quiet, so this was a big event.
He continued coming into the bookshop daily, little wintertime visits each day, about 3ish. He’d walk in, stand just by the table of hardbacks, survey, and then go on about his day. This continued throughout the winter and on the days he didn’t pop by I became forlorn. Where is my seagull?
I named him Jonathan. After my brother who was travelling through NZ and Australia. He was travelling before I got the lease for the premises, launched the Crowdfunder or opened Clemo Books so it was like my brother was here with me in spirit. I didn’t name him after the children’s book, but it worked out nicely that there is also a literary seagull called Jonathan.
I started sharing his visits to the bookshop on social media and it seemed the people yearned for seagull content.
I call him a ‘he’ because I don’t think a ‘she’ would act like he does. (That’s very sexist of me, and I guess I’m personifying my seagull.) But come April time each day there were shrieks and screams in the square that Clemo Books adjoins.
I’ve seen him swipe multiple pasties, a sausage roll from the most innocent little child and a doughnut whole. People walk away distraught and dishevelled. One man, who did walk away with his pastry, looked as if he was going to start on the seagull. It was a surreal scene. A grown man squaring up to a little seagull.
Jonathan is a menace. But we live in their environment, seabirds living by the coast and adapting however they can to a world in which seas are less abundant, coastal habitats are changing and weather is completely unpredictable due to climate change.
But nature is a beast and the most stressful day in July (bar the 31st July tax deadline) occurred when a lil bby seagull fledged from the 19th century building that Clemo Books is located inside.
Falling 4 floors I walked out to find a little baby seagull, grey salt and pepper feathers, gathering itself. Jonathan was walking towards it, a caring older seagull checking in on the next generation I thought – but no, Jonathan was intent on killing the lil bby seagull. A traumatic morning followed consisting of protecting the little bby, harbouring it in the safety of the bookshop, and carrying it in a box down to the beach.
On this day I realised I had gone mad. Believing Jonathan was my pet seagull was completely unhinged. The shock of his true nature reminded me that he is a wild animal and that just because he visits me in the bookshop doesn’t mean he’s a cultured bird that would flout the laws of nature and his species to not kill the competition.
He still visits me daily, takes a little sip of water from the dog bowl outside the bookshop, and stands by whilst I eat lunch outside in case of any food dropped (although he’s always very polite with me.)
Spending a lot of time on your own does weird things to you but I still stand by my positive PR campaign for seagulls. They’re fascinating birds and I’ve listed some facts about them taken from Sam and The Seagulls children's book by Stephen Warman & R.M. Knight and published by local Mabecron Books.
· Their eggs are camouflaged to blend in with the cliff face.
· Hatching from their egg can take up to 2 days.
· Herring Gull is the species you’re likely to see around Newquay’s shores.
· They can live up to 30 years old!
I do love Jonathan the Seagull.
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