Sep 262009
Utah is a land-locked desert state. Many might thus be surprised to find out that this state is over-run with seagulls. Horrid, filthy skyrats they are, but they are of religious significance to the Mormons, thus I believe it’s illegal to blow ’em out of the sky for farmcats to feast upon. A pity, that. Oh, well. Anyway, here are some photos I took a few days back up at Mantua reservoir.
4 Responses to “Seagulls”
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Not a religious symbol but Im pretty sure it’s illegal to shoot them because they’re the state bird.
>Not a religious symbol…
I’m pretty sure they are. IIRC, the lore has it that the first Mormon settlers got here, planted a crop, and then the grasshoppers came and started gnawing on it. The pioneers prayed, and God sent a bunch of seagulls to eat the grasshoppers. Not exactly the most striking religious tale ever, but it’s one I hear with some regularity around here. And *that* is why these disgusting, nasty beasts are the state bird.
I’m Mormon (jack). Did the whole two years of banging on doors and the whole bit. Seagulls don’t mean anything more to the religion than tarantulas do, they’re just part of a story. Never heard the prayed to God bit before though I imagine if grasshoppers were wolfing down your crops and you were a pioneer you’d be doing some heavy praying to whatever was handy. Anybody who’s seen a farmer’s field being plowed around here though knows that hords of seagulls will show up anywhere there’s grub, even the garbage dump 🙂 When they got around to picking the state bird though well, at least that one had a story so what the hell.
> Never heard the prayed to God bit before
Maybe I’m thinking abck to that black-and-white movie I saw some years back, 1940’s era. Shrug.