It wasn't in the Best Buy parking lot at 1pm but it was there around 2:45. I pulled in and stopped a little ways from a flock of maybe 20 gulls (ring-billed except...), and as I stopped nearly all of them flew up, circled around my car, landed, and hung around looking at me, presumably waiting for me to feed them. The nearest gull, 10 feet outside my window, was the black-headed. Soon it flew around 2 or 3 times. Excellent views. I noticed that when it was among the other, larger gulls, occasionally one would slowly approach it, bothering it, and the BH would walk away. Once it flew away and came back to a different spot. 

The gulls were smart enough to get out of the way when cars would cut across the lanes, which is inevitable. No miscreants, just lazy drivers. I would bet it would survive other than a concerted attack. A few teenagers and rednecks (as a type) love to kill things, especially with their cars and trucks. At Sherburne Refuge in MN (where I lived for a few years), they would purposely drive over large numbers of turtles crossing the road--and bull snakes too. Yee-ha. May they all drive off the edge of a cliff. 

Tim Houghton
(Glen Arm)
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