Tuesday 21 July 2020

Summer gulls

Every year the cutting of the hay meadows for silage attracts hundreds of gulls, mainly Lesser Black-backed Gulls, to the fields between Winster and Newhaven. 
The gulls seem to be particularly attracted to the field after the grass has been cut and just removed, presumably revealing lots of insects that have been left behind, so they move around the fields quite a bit as they are cut. 
There are a lot of fields, many of which are not close to roads,  and when they are near the roads they can be busy so you need to find the fields that are reasonable accessible at the right time.
Today I counted over 350 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, predominantly of the British race graellsii but also a few of the darker backed race intermedius which breeds in northern Denmark, southern and central Norway.
Many of these birds will be heading to the Iberian peninsula or Morocco for the winter.
I also counted 9 of the paler backed Yellow-legged Gulls which have spread in to southern Britain from the French and Portuguese Atlantic coasts and the Mediterranean over the past couple of decades and are now regular on Midland lakes and reservoirs in the late summer and autumn.
Lesser Black-backed Gull - graellsii adult


Lesser Black-backed Gull - graellsii 1st summer 

Lesser Black-backed Gulles - graellsii foreground with intermedius behind

Lesser Black-backed Gull - intermedius adult

Yellow-legged Gull - 3rd summer

Yellow-legged Gull - 2nd summer

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