Birds, birds, birds – by Sheila

Those of you with exceptionally eagle eyes may have noticed on the “Who, why, what, when?” page of the 3GKiliClimb site, reference is made to my dislike of toucans.  Toucans?  Why pick on them, you might ask?  Well, my horror of toucans goes back to the late 1960s.  I went on a visit to London’s Regent’s Park Zoo at that time, and the ‘must see’ exhibit then was the new Snowdon Aviary which opened in 1964. It was designed by a group of people including Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, who was the husband of Princess Margaret, the Queen’s sister.

The aviary looked almost weightless – like a bird. Its frame was pioneering in that it made use of aluminium; it was an example of a kind of engineering that uses tension to support its structure. A giant net ‘skin’ is wrapped around a skeleton of poles – paired diagonal ‘sheer legs’ at either end, each lined to a three-sided pyramid or ‘tetrahedron’ – which is held in position only by cables.  I guess it was a forerunner of structures we have since become accustomed to, examples being many out of town sports or shopping centres and the Skyline Pavilions at Butlins. What was special about the aviary was that there was a walkway for people to walk through the aviary inside that ‘skin’ at a raised level – at bird height – and that’s where it all went wrong!  I was happily walking across, when I suddenly saw an enormous bill heading straight at me!  The toucan attached to the beak seemed bent on getting to the other side of the cage, regardless of me being in the way.  At the last minute I ducked and felt that big yellow beak brush across the top of my head!  I don’t like to think what would have happened to the bird and to me, if I hadn’t taken that evasive action.  I have been very wary of toucans and other big birds in close proximity ever since then.

I do get a bit freaked by predatory seagulls.  They are enormous in the UK – the size of chickens!  When I went to Australia, I was surprised to see that seagulls were much smaller there, although equally avaricious.  I thought I had better find out whether this was just my perception or really true, so I have done a bit of Google research to find out.  I am right!  In the UK, what we refer to as a ‘seagull’ is a herring gull: an adult can be up to 26 inches long.  In Oz, they refer to silver gulls as ‘seagulls’ – and they only grow to a maximum of 17 inches long. To my eye both birds look fairly similar, if on different scales – although I know that the ornithologists amongst you will probably tell me they look nothing alike!

Despite the smaller size of Ozzie seagulls, I was completely freaked by one, which seemed to be working in co-operation with a crow on the beach, when Samson, daughter Gwen’s firstborn, was about two weeks old.  I was on the beach looking after the baby, while Gwen went to and fro a cafe, bringing out fish and chips and drinks for lunch.  She brought out a polystyrene box of fish and chips and when she disappeared again, a seagull started to approach Samson and me on one side, while the crow approached on the other.  I was batting them both away alternately, when the seagull came right on to the rug.  I moved to sweep it off, while the crow, on the other side, opened the box and pulled out a chip and made off with it. I felt totally intimidated by the pair of them!

One of my neighbours in Canterbury became frightened to enter or leave her home because of seagulls last year.

They built a nest in her chimney pots, and took to dive bombing anyone who tried to go along the path to the door, presumably to protect their young.  She was absolutely terrorised by them, and was stuck indoors during much of the good weather.  She subsequently told me that to prevent such a thing happening again, she had spent a lot of money in having a seagull proof cage put over her chimney pots – and I had an opportunity to view her cage recently.  We are having our house painted at the moment and have had scaffolding put up.

Another neighbour, who knows about the proposed 3GKC endeavour, jokingly asked if I was having a special frame erected, so I can practice climbing up it in readiness for Kilimanjaro.  That would be rather expensive practice, but I did think I should take the opportunity to see the world from some different angles, so I have clambered up to the top a couple of times – and got a great view of the seagull proof cage from the top of the scaffolding!  I hope the birds don’t decide to nest in our chimney pots instead!

It seems I might have to deal with big birds on Kilimanjaro – though happily not toucans.  There are big greedy white-necked ravens with large, strong, scary looking beaks. They hang around the campsites and huts on Kilimanjaro scavenging and hoping for scraps. They are ready to grab the food from your hand, just like the seagulls on our beaches.  Breakfast and evening meals are happily served under canvas, which helps minimise this particular risk, but lunch is often in the open air, so that is a potential danger time.  I have also read that we shouldn’t leave anything lying outside the tent or the ravens will come to investigate and possibly ‘rearrange’ our possessions!

I have come across reference to vultures being on Kilimanjaro and wondered if that was something else to worry about, but it seems that it is considered a special treat to see them circling above, and they don’t come anywhere near you, so long as you are live and kicking.  Right then – live and kicking it will certainly be!