Autumn waterbird quiz-

Black-headed gull?

That was my first thought Clare!

It looks like a gull. I don't think it's a kittiwake as the legs look a bit long, and it's not one of the bigger gulls - it might also be a Mediterranean or little gull. I very rarely see little gulls, sadly. They are beautiful, dainty and fly very like a tern.

I wish I had your knowledge Clare, just a fancy on my part!

In 2007 I went to work on the Port of Felixstowe. There were nesting gulls all over that part of the port, including on the roof of the portacabin I worked in - to say the least, it was noisy and lively! I thought the least I should do was learn which kinds of gull we had, along with a few of the more common kinds. It turned out we were covered in herring and lesser black-backed gulls - it was a particularly stroppy lesser black-backed gull on our office roof who would start swooping over your head if you even glanced at her for too long! As each season passed the gulls got more and more used to me and eventually they didn't bat an eyelid if I came close to their fledglings - this was helpful as I'd sometimes walk close to them to discourage them from wandering into the road, something they did all too often. By then it was obvious to me that gulls can learn a degree of trust and tolerance over time, and that they are formidably intelligent. They've certainly grown on me and when it came to practising my flight shots they were an obvious first choice of target. The longer I watch them the more interesting they become.

I have lived by the sea since I was 7 & that's a very long time ago, but mostly I heard folk moaning about them & doing everything possible to dissuade them from nesting on their houses and I wasn't really into feeding birds for a fair number of years! My late Bro used to put out unwanted cat food for a nesting pair of Herring Gulls & their offspring for quite a few years, the adults used to knock on his back door & eventually used to come in & eat both cat & dog food whilst his pets looked on in amazement! I was surprised to see just how large they are, used to give them a wide berth in supermarket car parks if young were also aound! Could have seen many different types of gull without even knowing!

WendyBartter said:

Could have seen many different types of gull without even knowing!

Chances are you've mostly seen herring gulls, though you might have had a few lesser black-backs as well.  Your brother must have really loved them, and showed it - that's an amazing level of trust and it would have taken ages to build that up.

I think given that we have to "try this for size" that we are looking at a Little Gull.

That's a weird way to solve a quiz Bob :)))

Nice one-

S

seymouraves said:

That's a weird way to solve a quiz Bob :)))

Nice one-

S

Only if it's right. Was it?