Blogger: Erica Howe, Communications Manager
“If I had a gun, i’d shoot them” was one of the comments I got whilst talking about gulls on BBC Radio Norfolk earlier this week! Needless to say, my mouth fell open and I instantly wanted to defend the plight of our sea-side town inhabitants. I realised that there is definitely some long overdue gull admiration needed.
Can you imagine what our coast would be like without the soundtrack of the herring gull? In my mind it would be an incomplete scene, eerily quiet with lifeless skies. You can’t sketch a picture of the sea-side without the infamous ‘m’ of a gull.
We all call them sea gulls, probably because they all appear, sound and behave in such a similar way, but they all have certain features that make them charming, distinct and special.
The herring gull is the one you’re most likely to see above our sea-side towns. With its large, dramatic wingspan; a muted slate blue, like its been shaded in using a 3H pencil. It is a confident bird, but its yellow beak and pink legs always make me smile! The easiest way to tell our British gulls apart is their beak and leg colour. And, once you start noticing them, you’ll be well away!
The lesser black-backed gull sounds like you’d need a masters in ornithology to identify it, but don’t let that put you off. Looking like a rather slender herring gull, it is mostly a visitor to our shores, heading south for the winter. Yellow beaked and yellow legged with wings of a moody, thundery grey, this is a welcome addition to our summer suite of gulls.
Next on my ‘favourites’ list would be the black-headed gull. Much smaller and more elegant, this gull has some real style. Its red legs match its red beak perfectly, broken only by a tiny splodge of black on the tip.
I should mention that the feeding habit of gulls is what you might call that of a teenage boys, not fussy! Over the years, gulls have become opportunist feeders with their natural food supplies out at sea depleting. Sadly, the needs of some of our most precious sealife are not being considered properly by the government and there is a very real risk that the important areas seabirds need for food will remain unprotected.
I am still a guilty party of those who refer to ‘sea gulls’, this fictional groups of birds who dominate our coastline, but I honestly believe that without them our shores would not be the same. The next time you’re at the beach or visiting a sea-side town, be sure to give it a go. Pink legs? Yellow beak? Why not tell Mr Cameron that we need to start giving our sea birds a voice, www.rspb.org.uk/steppingup/campaign/
Photos of black headed gulls in different plummages by Jodie Randall (rspb-images.com)
Article in Eastern Daily Press on Saturday 2nd July 2011