I like seagulls. Where I live, they are ubiquitous at the shores of the bays, lakes, ponds and oceans. They are somewhat friendly. They swagger with attitude. Although they bicker amongst themselves over whatever morsels they beg or find, seagulls do seem to get along with their group generally, despite their squawking.

They call, they flap at one another, they squawk they annoyance and displeasure. But, the hang together and where one seagull is found, others are surely near.

In fact, their natural camouflage coloring makes them blend into the sands and sea, but it is their cry, that usually prompts one to their presence.

Seagulls of one variety or another are found most everywhere on earth where there are seashores for them to fish. These shore birds are good at fishing but they are also proficient scavengers and thieves. They love to hang out at the local dump.

It is fun to feed them with scraps of bread as they argue and try to steal from each other. However, I have seen seagulls drop back when another member of the group perhaps injured slightly or younger has failed at a few attempts to gab a bite. I have seen one or two of the birds protect another bird from the others so that it can eat, too. They may squabble, but they do not actually attach one another.

They are a curious mixture of contrasts of generosity and thievery, independent personalities that loosely hang together in a kind of flowing community, friendly yet full of attitude. Seagulls are an easy metaphor for humankind's relationships.

However, seagulls have a way, whether by instinct or intuition of avoiding danger. After a Nor'easter, hurricane or blizzard a trips to the local shores proves that the gull population continues to thrive.

They avoid their natural predators by flight and camouflage. They blend into the world of sea, sky and shoreline that they inhabit, visually becoming a moving, flapping part of a wind blown, wave lapping landscape.

--Judy Rey Wasserman

In the Written on the Wind series, Psalm 69 was chosen for the seagull, as many of the passages seem to pertain. Below is the King James version.

A Cry of Distress (Psalm 69)
To the chief Musician upon Shoshan'nim, A Psalm of David.

Save me, O God;
for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire,
where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

I am weary of my crying:
my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.

O God, thou knowest my foolishness;
and my sins are not hid from thee. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord G OD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.

Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children.

For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.

They that sit in the gate speak against me;
and I was the song of the drunkards. But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD ,
an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me,and out of the deep waters.

Let not the waterflood overflow me,
neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Hear me, O L ORD ; for thy loving-kindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

And hide not thy face from thy servant;
for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.

Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it:
deliver me because of mine enemies.

Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor: mine adversaries are all before thee. and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

They gave me also gall for my meat;
and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.

Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake. and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.

Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.

Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

But I am poor and sorrowful:
let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.

I will praise the name of God with a song,
and will magnify him with thanksgiving.

This also shall please the L ORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.

The humble shall see this, and be glad:
and your heart shall live that seek God. For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.

The seas, and every thing that moveth therein. For God will save Zion,
and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.

The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.