The term was popularized most recently by Mark Suster:

http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/10/25/choose-your-vc... --

One of the terms we coined there was a “seagull.” We used it to describe certain of our partners (e.g. the owners of Andersen Consulting). Seagulls were the partners who didn’t spend much actual time on your project. They were smart and accomplished. They knew enough about your project to have an opinion but not enough to help. They would swoop in for one day to “check in on things,” shit on you and then fly away. Seagulls.

The analogy holds pretty well for some VCs and this can be destructive.

My favorite term for it is "Eye of Sauron" management. Most of the time the eye is not on you ... but when it is, look out!

you missed step 2 after fly in:

2) loudly squawk

Hah, true!

To take the analogy further, sometimes you need to throw some breadcrumbs to keep the seagulls busy.

Hit-and-run management too.