Gordon is a bit of a character.

He taps on the floor-to-ceiling windows in my friend Jill’s bedroom some mornings, early, to check whether she might have any food for him.

Jill doesn’t actually feed him anything but, as a Herring gull, he’s a master scavenger and a skilled opportunist, so will pounce on anything tasty looking that she puts out for the smaller birds.

Gordon also vigorously defends Jill’s backyard from potential gull interlopers, mostly by screeching loudly from the roof when they come near.

Gordon may sound like a nuisance but he’s also a bit of a charmer.

I mean he is rather handsome, don’t you think?

I succumbed immediately to his charms so, when we bought ourselves fish and chips after a particularly long day out and about, I insisted we got a portion of chips for Gordon.

And, the next morning, when I put them out for him, Gordon was in seagull heaven. He wolfed those chips down like only a ravenous, greedy gull can.

I think Jill’s very glad I don’t visit too often as Gordon might easily come to expect such preferential treatment.