It's fair to say that when a fishing boat brings in a catch there's some interest from the native birdlife at Felixstowe Ferry:
The herring gulls consider it to be the height of good manners to alert the population to the prospect of a good meal:
They've yet to refine who should get to the food first, though:
This formidable looking pair tries to get a better view of the proceedings:
Gulls clearly don't believe in a queuing system:
This is what you call a sheer weight of numbers:
This gull tries to make a break for it:
It doesn't get far:
Are they appealing for calm or cheering on the successful?
The fisherman has clearly seen it all before!
A solitary Brent goose congratulates itself on avoiding all of the palaver:
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
Quite a feeding frenzy, Clare. There's not much in the way of manners when it comes to gulls.
I see you are using a Canon 7D. How are you finding it. It's a heavy beast isn't it.
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Tony
My Flickr Photostream
It's certainly heavier than the 400D I was using, though not too much so. My real struggle was trying to sort out why all of the photos I was taking with it were coming out so bright - it turned out that the setting had been left on overexposing each shot, which is fatal at a place with as much light as Felixstowe Ferry! I'm getting there now, though (with a LOT of help from Whistling Joe).
Lol! Not much chance of isolating a subject in that bundle. Some of those later pictures, I can't even work out how many gulls there are, let alone which wing belongs to who!
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A little girl standing near me on the jetty was looking at the whole thing with a huge smile on her face - she thought the whole thing was amazing! I imagine the same expression was on my face as well. There are no birds quite like gulls.
Great stuff C, you are getting some lovely shots with new cam, especially like the pair of 'megaphones' lol!
When I couldn't stop last week during my excursion along the Esplanade, I witnessed an amazing amount of Gulls both on the water & flying around the end of the stone jetty in Margate & assumed that a fishing vessel must have come in! Never seen so many, must have numbered 100 or more!
It was the day that Kate Middleton visited the Turner Gallery (which is close by) but somehow I doubt that they flocked to see her arrival!!!
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WendyBartter said:It was the day that Kate Middleton visited the Turner Gallery (which is close by) but somehow I doubt that they flocked to see her arrival!!!
I always assume that a huge number of excited gulls means a boat has arrived. It's good to see the local fishermen feeding the unwanted scraps to the gulls - it's got to be much better for them than leftover junk food.
They certainly get a goodly supply of fish 'n chips in Margate!! Lol
When the gulls get together and food is on offer it all turns rather chaotic and a real spectacle for onlookers like the little girl lol Your photos sum it up beautifully Clare; looks like the gulls enjoyed the scraps of fish :)
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Regards, Hazel
Great set of shots, Clare. I do like a Gull, the more the merrier in my opinion.
Paul
My bird photos HERE