In the swirl of busyness this week I was captivated by the seagulls.  Those pesky vermin that scoff your lunch if you are daft enough to let them if you’re picnicking by the waterfront in Wellington.

As you’d expect they hang around the harbour area.  Usually they are just hanging around looking for mischief.  Ducking and diving or just holding themselves upright in the gusty wind.  They can be quite amusing but normally I just see a seagull and move on.

Once again my visual antennae was flexed for interesting things to practice my photography on.  And this gull on the floating pontoon captivated me. This bird chose to walk up the pontoon from the water rather than fly and land.  It struck me that this was a thinking gull.  Making life easy for itself.

But nowhere as much as a band of other gulls.  They had given up altogether on the harbour and headed in land to other water. This is one of the many water features around Wellington.

This one isn’t suitable for seagulls to play in but there is another that is.  Here’s a happy bunch of gulls sitting on a water fall creation by the Town Hall.

They had made themselves quite at home, using the water for their personal bathing.

No joke these gulls weren’t there for a quick dip, this is where they were taking the salt from their feathers and having a right splash around.

I hung around for a few minutes taking snaps and they carried on happily preening and splashing. They were completely oblivious to their audience.  Well maybe this gull was taking advantage of the attention.

I love the crossed tail on this gull and the fact you can see his legs paddling around underneath so clearly.

Just look at him show off – spread those wings!

He was not alone though.  There were other gulls in the wing flapping washing routine!

Yes, this was like the seagull lido – a places to splash around and have some fun.

The only thing I’d say about these gulls making use of the water features in town is that much of the stuff floating in the water is not edible but they don’t know that.

I was alarmed to see them diving for bits of plastic which they then fought over before the other swallowed it.  I can imagine that too much of that sort of “food” isn’t what a seagull needs to remain healthy and full of nutrition.

I did enjoy watching them at play though and by the time I pushed off to my next appointment there was a little crowd of other people who had taken my spot to watch the gulls.  They were by now causing quite a scene with their playful, bath time antics.

It cheered me up for my next appointment at least!