Wonder gulls
- lfjedwards
- Jul 13
- 4 min read
It’s that time of the year when thoughts turn to holidays, especially considering the nice weather we’ve been enjoying of late.
With this is in mind, some of you may decide to head to the coast where often, with the onshore breeze, the warmth can be more bearable.
If you are lucky enough to manage to head to the coast, maybe you’ll have a dip in the sea, take a picnic, enjoy an ice-cream, whatever you decide to do, certain feathered friends got there first and are waiting for you!
I am of course talking about gulls, not seagulls as this term is not strictly accurate seeing as gulls can be found both at the coast and inland.
Gulls, sadly have a bad reputation but I love them. Few can deny that the sound of gulls calling is one those wonderful sounds that take our minds back to childhood days spent by the seaside, which for many of us are some of our most precious memories. I want to celebrate and champion them here and hope to dispel some of the most common myths and misunderstandings that are associated with them. There are many reasons to love gulls, some will surprise you.
Yes, gulls are opportunistic but wouldn’t you be if a load of people just turned up uninvited to your territory with a load of tasty treats and snacks. We are invading their space and gulls will naturally scavenge especially when we leave scraps everywhere and leave bins overflowing. Littering is a nationwide problem and seems to have got worse since the pandemic. Gulls are simply reacting to our negative actions including our failure to properly dispose of waste and our attitude to littering.
Gulls are typically monogamous, they also stick together in large groups and help defend each other against predators, especially during the breeding season.
They are also devoted parents with both parents involved in incubating and caring for their young.
Gulls have a complex system of communication, with a variety of calls that convey important information from one individual to another, such as food sources and danger. They also use body movements as a form of communication.
Young gulls play with each other too just like kids at school, practicing techniques that will be useful for later life such as dropping and picking up objects.
Did you know that gulls have special glands close to their eyes. These glands filter out excess salt found in the water they drink, allowing them to consume both fresh and salt water, which is crucial for survival in coastal environments.
Gulls have panoramic vision allowing them to spot food from high altitudes and predators from afar.
They are very intelligent birds and possess problem-solving abilities.
The red spot on a gull's beak, plays a crucial role in communication between parent and chick. Chicks will instinctively peck at it, prompting the parent to regurgitate food for them.
Certain species of gulls can live for 10 to 15 years, not bad on a diet of chips and chicken pasties, well not quite!
Fascinating facts I’m sure you’ll agree but love them or loathe them, gulls need our help. Many of our resident species are on the BTO’s ‘Birds of Conservation Concern’ list https://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/publications/bocc-5-a5-4pp-single-pages.pdf with the herring gull being red listed and other species such as the lesser black-backed, great black-backed, black headed and common gull all appearing on the amber list.
The key reasons for the decline in our gulls are loss of natural nesting habitats caused by coastal development, the overfishing of our seas and the impact of avian flu. These factors are causing declines in both coastal and inland populations. Urgent action is needed to protect and restore natural habitats and our seas and help gull colonies recover.
In a nutshell. love a gull, plenty of reasons for doing so. Imagine the seaside without that unmistakeable call or their cheeky antics as they try and steal your sandwich. We cannot allow these fascinating birds to continue to decline and must all play our part in helping to save them.
Do you know one species of gull from another? They can be difficult to tell apart as many are quite similar in appearance but there are subtle differences to help with identification. There are however other gulls which visit us less frequently or in passage, such as the Mediterranean gull, little gull and glaucous gull, I have focussed on the gulls you are most likely to see in the UK. (All images Copyright me, Lee Edwards, unless otherwise indicated).
Fascinating stuff. Very informative lots of stuff I didn't know. A very enjoyable read..