Seagulls are not one species but many and they do not necessarily live by the sea. This paper concerns silver gulls, found in Australia. I focus on the way they interact with humans in the urban environment of Hobart, Tasmania, which is often described as ‘last stop before Antarctica’. I use Van Dooren’s idea of ‘storied-places’ to provide new perspectives on and human accountability for seagulls. We found a baby silver gull near the edge of the river that runs through the centre of the city. He was fluffy and spotted and had been dropped by a predator. I tell the story of his survival; how a rookery was moved from an unused railway line; how volunteers conduct the city’s annual gull count; the relationship of silver gulls to food sellers; how a car collided with a large group of gulls sleeping on a road; and how gulls feature in the history and culture of the city. I conclude that the resilient silver gull, like all gulls in the Family Laridae, although often constructed as ‘just a bird’ is much more. They are an integral part of human and nonhuman urban life, a wing on the breeze, a stray feather, a strident call, a visual metaphor, and fragment of a larger space.

Item Type:	Conference Extract
Research Division:	Language, Communication and Culture
Research Group:	Cultural studies
Research Field:	Cultural studies not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Culture and Society
Objective Group:	Other culture and society
Objective Field:	Other culture and society not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Freeman, C (Dr Carol Freeman)
ID Code:	155443
Year Published:	2022
Deposited By:	Office of the School of Humanities
Deposited On:	2023-02-20
Last Modified:	2023-02-20
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