07 Saturday Nov 2020
Posted in birds
Tags
bird with deformed beak, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Herring gull, Herring gull with deformed beak, juvenile Herring gull
This juvenile Herring gull that I spotted amongst the gull flock at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park a couple of days ago had an interesting beak deformity. Presumably it can eat okay and it was preening but still looked scruffy, so I guess the twisted beak doesn’t work well for grooming.
10 Thursday Oct 2019
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay, Ely embankment, gull scavenging dead fish, Herring gull, juvenile Herring gull
It’s difficult to share this juvenile Herring gull’s enthusiasm for the large dead fish it had discovered on the embankment of the Ely River where it flows in to Cardiff Bay, but food is food and the bird’s scavenging was removing a potentially very smelly object from the foreshore. Well done, that gull!
16 Wednesday Jan 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, seaside, winter
Tags
1st year Herring gull, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Herring gull, juvenile Herring gull
Another day, another bird club trip, this time to Kenfig pool (where we had the Slavonian grebe and the Great white egret), to Porthcawl (first Cattle egrets of the year), and to Newton Point (first Purple sandpipers, but no Black redstart today). It was a cracking day’s birding but rather rainy much of the time so the camera didn’t come out often and my best shot of the day was of this juvenile (1st year) Herring gull who was pleading with us to share our sandwiches as we sat on the seawall at Porthcawl. It was out of luck!
11 Friday Jan 2019
Tags
#365DaysWild, birding, birtdwatching, British birds, Grey heron, juvenile Herring gull, Sully beach, walk from Sully to Penarth
It may have been grey and occasionally mizzling but that didn’t stop me enjoying a fabulous walk back from Sully beach to Penarth today. A tribe of 30 Turnstones flew in, as did 4 Grey plover and a little Dunlin friend; Rock pipits were flitting to and fro; there were 27 Curlew grazing on the playing fields – always a treat to watch; and I saw my first Kestrel of the year, perched on a high wire, watching. I did feel a little sorry for this Grey heron though, being harassed by a juvenile gull (Herring, I think).
