The Suffolk Seagull 73, saved the life of his best friend from a deadly Eagle claw.
By Ian Bred, Norfolk Correspondent
LOWESTOFT, SUFFOLK – Regular readers of the SUFFOLK GAZETTE (if you’re not, why not?) will be familiar with legendary Seagull 73, Lowestoft Squadron.
It seems that not a week goes by without another story of the hero gull’s swashbuckling exploits hitting the headlines, and this week is no different.
A tale of two gulls
Yesterday, at dawn, as Lowestoft’s fleet of small fishing boats set off for the choppy waters of the North Sea. Two gulls were busy patrolling the skies, surveying the familiar scene below. They were watching and waiting for a chance to nab some breakfast, or perhaps, crap on a traffic warden’s head.
The birds were legendary Seagull 73 and his best, and oldest friend, Seagull 71. Little did the two of them know that within minutes,.they would both be embroiled in a life-or-death battle with a fellow fiend of the skies… an Australian white-bellied Sea Eagle.
Best Seagull pals
Seagulls 73 & 71 have been best pals since 1987, when Seagull 71, a year older than his famous best friend,.came to the aid of a young 73 in the aftermath of an attack on his mother by an Alsatian dog on the beach near Ness Point. Just a chick at the time, and with a mother still in shock from the attack. 71 plucked both of them from the beach and carried them back to the safety of their cliff-top nest.
Yesterday, 73 finally got the chance to repay his loyal friend. As the two buddies swooped and swooshed across the beach and promenade in search of their first meal of the day,.a large shadow fell across the hazy sun above them. Within seconds, 71 was under attack from a vicious Eagle with a big white belly. With a wing span far exceeding his own,.and with talons as sharp as… talons, digging into his shoulders, 71 was powerless to defend himself against the scrawny-necked brute which was intent on carrying him off for the purposes of eating him.
But the illegal immigrant seabird with the white belly and the big yellow beak hadn’t counted on the deep. The lasting friendship between his intended victim and hero-legend… Seagull 73.
Rocket-propelled seagull
With characteristic poise and bravura, 73 quietly took a position several metres above the over-confident Aussie Eagle. Waiting for the moment when the unwelcome Antipodean had dropped his guard, 73 flung back his shoulders and began a whistling divebomb towards his foe. Gathering speed, and resembling a rocket-propelled grenade over the mountains of Afghanistan, No 73 smashed into the Kangaroo-ish Kidnapper with his claws, before burying his sharp beak into the nape of his neck
SQUAAAAARRRRRKKKKKKKK! Shrieked the stunned Sea Eagle. WTF had just happened? What had happened was that he had been No 73’d!
As the unwelcome Aussie immigrant flew woozily back out to sea, Seagull buddies 73 & 71 settled down on a nearby telegraph line and cackled as they gave the bird to the fleeing foreigner.
