The black-headed gulls are very much one of the major sights and sounds of Leighton Moss at this time of year. They can be a bit like marmite - some people love them and others are not so keen. I thought therefore that I would focus on them for the 50th anniversary weekly blog, to highlight just how fabulous and important they are......
Now a bit like the bearded tits that I covered in last week's blog, the name black-headed gull is a bit mis-leading. If you look at them closely, they are actually more like chocolate-faced gulls really, with dark brown colour not fully extending across their heads during the breeding season. For the rest of the year, their head is white!
Sometime in March, the birds arrive onto the reedbed pools. I can literally go home one evening and all is quiet, then arrive the following morning to the raucous sounds of them all. It always makes me smile and is a sure sign of spring. They can be seen throughout the reserve, but are very noticeable on the islands in front of Lilian's and Public pools. These islands were created as nesting sites specially for them by our wardening team, using areas of floating reedbed that were cut out and punted across the pools before being staked down.
Black-headed gull on nest by David Mower
When you sit and watch the gulls on the islands, they are highly entertaining. They fly in with bits of reed to use for nesting material and constantly bicker over who should be where. The noise they make is a loud and constant squawking, which is why I think that some people are perhaps less keen on them, but it is simply because they are oncentrated in one place to breed that there appears to be so many.
Black-headed gulls are actually on the amber list of conservation concern as wintering populations have seen a 33% decline nationally. Like many of our sea birds, this is likely to be to do with food availability linked to climate change.
As well as being just splendid in their own right, here at Leighton Moss, black-headed gulls have an important role to play. One of our largest predators on-site are the marsh harriers. These reedbed specialist birds of prey that were almost extinct in the 1970s will eat a number of different things from frogs to small mammals and birds. Black-headed gull chicks, as well as those of moorhens and coots provide a food source for the marsh harriers and so assist with the survival of thier young. Not necessarily great news for the black-headed gulls but the reserve is a balanced eco-system - everything has a place in the foodchain.
Black-headed gull colony at saltmarsh by David Mower
The breeding colonies on-site will generally have left the islands by July. You do see black-headed gulls around the reserve all year round, but in much less concentated numbers. They tend to head out more to the coastal part of the reserve for the winter. So for now, noisy as they undoubtably are, I am going to enjoy just watching them close to the hides for the nest couple of months - why not come and see them!