Tag Archives: Great black-backed gull

Great black-backed gulls

01 Saturday Oct 2022

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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).

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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.

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301/365 Wanderings of a Great black-backed gull

28 Monday Oct 2019

Posted by in birds, nature

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We saw a lot of Great black-backed gulls during our long weekend birding at Portland Bird Observatory at the end of September, both tackling the strong westerly winds out over the huge seas and also taking a breather from those winds, snoozing in a field just along from the Obs. And, while the rest of our group was seawatching near the obelisk, I walked west along the coastal path and found one Great black-backed gull standing alone on rocks at the water’s edge.

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This particular gull was ringed so I reported the sighting. It turns out the bird was not far from where it was first ringed in June 2015, on the breakwaters of Portland Harbour, as part of the Portland Gulls project. Joint project leader Terry Coombs kindly emailed me the history of P:49B and commented that ‘From the sightings we have it seems to favour Portland in the winter and cruising the Channel during the warmer months’. Apart from many sightings in the Portland area, it has also been spotted at RSPB Dungeness, on 16 March 2015 and 9 March 2019, and on the Axe estuary, on 19 August 2015.

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My sincere thanks to Terry for providing the history of this gull. You can read more about his Portland Gulls project on their blog, and please do report the ringed birds (of all species) that you see – tracking bird movements is a huge part of their protection and conservation.

Birding at Rhossili and Mewslade

02 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by in birds, insects, nature, walks

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Yesterday was my second visit to Rhossili with my friends from the Glamorgan Bird Club, though I still haven’t walked along this magnificent beach.

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Our group of 15 met in the National Trust car park at Rhossili, then slowly meandered along the cliff tops towards the point, birding as we walked.

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I saw my first Choughs, Fulmars were spotted gliding majestically below us, and a Great black-backed gull flew in and landed on a headland.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, here I also saw my first Grayling butterflies. The first, pictured here on a discarded Coke bottle, was spotted by eagle-eyed Tate, and the second by another birder, Rob.

At the point, we enjoyed superb views, and the last of the bright sunny weather, while eating our lunch. Then, despite the rain starting, 11 of our intrepid team headed across the causeway to The Worm, where their scrambling and climbing and drenching were rewarded with views of Guillemots, Razorbills, Puffins and Manx shearwaters.

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Three of us chose, instead, to do the circular walk around the headland, seeing lots of Linnets and Meadow pipits in the fields, a Kestrel hovering in search of prey, and two lovely fresh-looking Small tortoiseshell butterflies.

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After some of the team returned from The Worm, four of us went for a brief visit to nearby Mewslade, a beautiful little valley that runs down to a sheltered cove. Here we had incredibly close views of a Lesser whitethroat feeding young, spotted two very yellow-faced Great tit fledglings in an area of burnt gorse, and watched more Choughs and another Kestrel flying through. It was yet another superb field trip with my bird club friends.

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Rye birds

27 Tuesday Feb 2018

Posted by in birds, nature, seaside, weather

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My original title for this blog was ‘A mad Kiwi and an Englishwoman go birding in a howling gale’. I decided that was a trifle long but it was certainly an accurate reflection of our day at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. Nevertheless, we persevered, though we did put off walking the beach-top path – I think we would’ve been blown all the way back to Rye township if we’d tried that.

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As you might expect, the birds were mostly hunkered down, sheltering where possible behind clumps of grass or huddled alongside sandy banks. Still, with brief stops here and there to scan the shingle and reeds with constantly watering eyes through fogging-up binoculars and short pops into hides (as much to warm up as to look out), we managed to clock up a total of 35 species. They were: Kestrel, House sparrow, Herring gull, Lesser black-backed gull, Black-headed gull, Mallard, Shelduck …

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Shoveler (above, seen through a netting fence), Brent goose …

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Wigeon (those handsome birds above), Oystercatcher, Carrion crow, Tufted duck …

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Redshank (always a favourite of mine), Coot …

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Cormorant (already beginning to nest in trees near Castle Water) …

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Great black-backed gull and Lapwing (both above), Little grebe, Mute swan, Teal, Little egret, Goldfinch, Woodpigeon, Blackbird, Green woodpecker, Great tit, Coal tit, Magpie, Mistle thrush, Pied wagtail, Greylag goose, Egyptian goose, Pheasant, and Starling.