Birds flying with gulls

[slinkycat]

A couple of times in the last week when I've been walking the dog down the local field at dusk a huge flock of seagulls has passed overhead,maybe making their way to the local reservoir.
I'm talking of hundreds coming over in waves, but what I don't understand is that though a lot of them look herring gull size, there are other groups with them that are much smaller. Hubby said maybe they are young ones, but I'm not convinced, young gulls are almost as big as adults and these are a lot smaller, any thoughts?

[mike11111]

Young gulls are actually bigger than adults. Might be terns or kittiwakes, perhaps.

[slinkycat]

I'm in the midlands though mike, would there be terns or kittiwakes here?

[mike11111]

Not an expert in ornithology I'm afraid, but seeing that seagulls have now migrated inland (plague of my life during the breeding season) other seabirds may have followed suit.

[slinkycat]

So why are they the plague of your life Mike? Do you own the local tip;-)

[mike11111]

No, but two come every year and nest in the chimney of the house opposite whose selfish owners will not put a mesh on the cowl. Every time I leave the front door they swoop and dive at me, ignoring everyone else. Two years ago one of them made a low-dive bombing attack then discharged its load, catching me full on my bald spot. Let me tell you that if you have never been shat upon by a seagull, it bloody hurts! Had such precision bombers been recruited into the RAF in 1939 the war would have been over before 1940.

[slinkycat]

I've heard about gulls attacking like that, no joke if you're the target:-(

[mike11111]

It is quite frightening, no matter one's age, and somewhat reminiscent of a Hitchcock film. An angry seagull, half an inch above your head is no joke. I suppose I am lucky that none has ever made physical contact (apart from the turd) but my neighbour had blood drawn from his scalp. I am the last person to advocate cruelty to animals but I would happily see every seagull captured and incinerated. Apparently it is legal to shoot pigeons, but not seagulls. I have never yet been attacked by a pigeon.

[wildwood]

Gulls nesting in the chimney of the house? That is very unusual!!!

[mike11111]

Not in Whitley Bay, it isn't!

[slinkycat]

not every one surely mike? Isn't it learned behaviour on gulls part that where there are humans there is edible waste left lying around?

[mike11111]

Maybe, but it is all to do with the breeding season. They no longer nest on the cliffs but come inland (no doubt knowing that there is an easy source of food). I know that they are merely being protective of their young, but all protestations to Mammy and Daddy seagull that I am not going to hurt baby seagull seem to fall upon deaf ears.

[heathfield]

The smaller birds may be black-headed gulls. And Shetlanders prevent blood-drawing physical attacks by gulls and skuas by holding up a stick above head height.

[mike11111]

I have heard of that, but one feels a bit of a prat walking down the street with a walking stick held aloft. Similarly with an umbrella when it's 80 degrees in the shade.

[seadogg]

Think you have the truth of it heathfield..Here on the coast it is rare to see one without the other. herring gulls will,of course, flock with any bird they can steal from .

[rowanwitch]

Almost certainly black headed gulls...we get large fly bys on the way to Bartley and Edgbaston reservoirs. Always in mixed flocks

[boxtops]

The nesting habits are not at all unusual down here in Dover - they often nest on the roof in the crook between the chimney and the roof angle. A baby fell of the roof of my offices a few years back on to the flat roof outside my window. it lived there for about three weeks until it fledged. Bane of our lives too Mike, we can't put the dustbin bags out until the very last minute, during the summer months.

[boxtops]

Mike, this is what you need........... http://www.sillyteeth...ats/umbrella-hat.html

[askyourgran]

We stay with friends at their house in Whitby Mike, I know what you mean, there are some huge gulls there and they wake you early dancing on the roof and calling out. The house and hotel owners pay for someone to take the eggs from the nests on their roofs to cull them every year. We met an American couple on the clifftop he had just been dive bombed by a large seagull, he was absolutely covered including his camera.

[mike11111]

Whoever takes the eggs from the nest (if indeed that is legal) is bloody brave!. I wouldn't risk it!:-)

[mike11111]

Thanks for the link, Boxtops, but I don't need to look more of a prat than I already am!:-)