Gulls Landing - An Observation

This eighty-seven line poem is what the title says - an observation, made by myself in November 2014 at a village I was then visiting. It is in blank verse and all the line endings are masculine. Lines 7-8 could have been clearer: in fact the black-head gull loses its black (actually very dark brown) head as early as August; most of them retain a black dab behind each eye making them look four-eyed. They are delightful gulls, much warier than the chancer herring gulls, although just as prepared to have a fight if someone throws some scraps to the flock.

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(Wednesday 5 November 2014, 1.00 pm)

Chilly, with muddy autumn clouds, and rain

About to fall, I stood observant on
The leaf-deep cornice of the village pond –
The yellowed ash leaves and the black-spot limes
Had fallen quickly as the frosts came on.
The pond was busy with the squabbling life
Of black-head gulls, in fact dark brown and now,
Late in the year’s cycle, returned to white.
I knew them from the white head common gull
By their rust red legs and bills and the white flash
Along their wings’ front edge, stark to the eye
As, twisting in the wind’s uneven thrust,
They sought to settle on the water’s face
Among their tetchy fellows, quick to cry
And take to wing dishumouredly if penned
Too closely by the landing ones. The rain
Began to fall in puckered kisses that
Elastically, like half-moon swathes of grain
By the sower swept, flurried across the pond –
The gulls unnoticing. With shoulders hunched
I stood and studied what before had passed
Me by: the gulls to land would bank and swoop
Then hover momently to pick a spot
Among the paddling ones to settle down;
They’d drop that final foot or so and at
The final moment, thrusting out their feet
Use them as fulcrum, falling forward on
Their breasts to make a thudding contact with
The water, hence coming to rest at once:
When noticed it could not escape the eye.
This thumping at the water called to mind
How airplanes landing, even jumbos, slam
Their wheels onto the tarmac, seeking firm
Command at once to minimise the threats
Which face a laden quickly-moving shell.