Sometime in the 1960’s, the YMCA on College Street in Toronto was torn down. A Great Horned Owl was found to have been living in one of the rooms for a long time, entering and exiting through an open window. Birds are clever creatures!

I love the recent story of a man being once again allowed to stay at the famous Fairmont Empress Hotel In Victoria after a 17 year ban.

All because of a flock of gulls.

The gentleman involved was attending a conference at the hotel and was asked by friends to bring some Brother’s Pepperoni, a local delicacy from the east coast.

As his hotel room did not have a refrigerator, he decided to open a window (it was a cool April day) in order to keep the pepperoni cool. The he went out for 4 or 5 hours.

When he returned there were about 40 gulls in his room cheerfully enjoying the pepperoni.

The gulls were doing what gulls do, and there were white stains all over the room.

As he entered the room, the gulls panicked and began flying everywhere, knocking things about as they did.

Here is his quote:

“The result was a tornado of seagull excrement, feathers, pepperoni chunks and fairly large birds whipping around the room. The lamps were falling. The curtains were trashed. The coffee tray was just disgusting.”

 

The hotel guest opened all of the windows and all of the gulls escaped; except one:

“In a moment of clarity, I grabbed a bath towel and jumped it. It started to freak out, so I wrapped it in the towel and threw it out of the window. I had forgotten that seagulls cannot fly when they are wrapped in a towel.”

The gull managed to free itself from the towel.

The hotel staff was alerted.

“I can still remember the look on the lady’s face when she opened the door. I had absolutely no idea what to tell her, so I just said, ‘I’m sorry’ and I went to dinner. When I came back, my things had been moved to a much smaller room.”

Upon his return to Halifax, he received a letter informing him that he was banned from the Fairmont Empress.

17 years later, the ban was lifted.