Song for a Seagull

A really addictive, happy pop tune from London 4-piece Teleman: Song For A Seagull. This will improve your Saturday.

And a really original video too. Live Instagram (despite its problems) feed from the back of a black cab in London? Brilliant.

Apparently the usernames popping up on the screen, helpfully in time with the lyrics, are the handles of fans who wrote in asking to be in the video. A little bit of editing magic and it looks like they’re singing along.

Simple, but so, so clever.

This song has now made it onto my Inspired By 6 Spotify playlist. And in case you want to share that more easily, I’ve made a bit.ly for it:

http://bit.ly/InspiredBy6

Please share the wealth – enabling people to listen to really decent music is a public service.

Today, I saved a seagull

It’s the 5spesie in Agulhas this weekend, whereby anglers from all over the country converge and try to catch as many Belman, Galjoen, Kob, Musselcracker and White Steenbras as they can.
Sadly, they also leave the beaches in a terrible state, with beer bottles and fishing line everywhere.

image

This little guy – probably not even a year old – was tangled in a fisherman’s line and was slowly drowning as the tide came in. The angler in question wasn’t doing anything about it (I’m not quite sure what his medium term plan was, given that there was a seagull attached to his fishing rod), so it was left to me to wade out about twenty metres, get pecked a bit and bring the gull to the beach for some cutting loose.

Tomorrow, we’re back down there to do some more clearing of fishing line, bait bags and beer bottles. But hopefully no more seagulls.

Nothing to see here – just a seagull-eating octopus

Om nom nom.

We’ve all had that cheeky seagull have a pop at our chips or our ice cream, but this time, the boot is on the other tentacle, as a juvenile glaucous-winged gull ends up being lunch for a Giant Pacific Octopus.

The event, witnessed by Ginger Morneau, her husband Ken, and brother Lou Baker at Ogden Point Breakwater in Victoria, British Columbia, is rare, but not unheard of, and is described in full here.

The Giant Pacific Octopus can be seen regularly patrolling the shallows of the shorelines around Victoria. They primarily feed on crustaceans, but are known to occasionally take fish and even birds. Octopi are extremely intelligent animals, and great problem solvers. Although they live only about four years, they can grow to have a span of more than 20 feet and to weigh more than 100 pounds. This one wasn’t that large, but it was still an impressive individual. What was even more impressive, though, was that it had one of its tentacles wrapped around the head of the gull, holding it under water.

It’s likely that the gull may even have been picking and pecking at the octopus before the tables were turned. Bear that in mind next time you’re devouring a supposedly harmless pizza. It may just rear up and bite back. Or… er… not.

Once the gull was drowned and the struggle over, the octopus took its meal back down into the icy depths of the Salish Sea. (Actually, I have no idea how warm it is, but it looks pretty chilly.)

Octopus 1-0 Seagull