It’s not unusual to see Great black-backed gulls on the water in Cardiff Bay or on the mudflats outside the Barrage at low tide, so these two adults weren’t a great surprise (though I’ve not seen one sitting on a pontoon before).

What was a surprise though was seeing this juvenile. Initially, I wasn’t sure what it was – I figured it wasn’t a Herring or Lesser black-backed gull as it was larger, had different markings on body and wings, and a markedly different head shape. I thought perhaps it was a Yellow-legged gull until, most fortuitously, I bumped into a local gull expert who was able to identify the bird from looking at the photos on my camera. My first juvenile Great black-backed gull, I think.