I very much enjoy photographing birds in flight and just lately I have become fond of sea birds. I enjoy the uncluttered backgrounds and the sea can make for an interesting canvas. This is a Black headed Gull, interestingly, in common with most (if not all gulls), they moult progressively over two or three years depending on species, in to their adult plumage. This is a second calendar year bird, until they are fully adult they have a black tipped tail and a mixture of brown and grey feathers on the wing coverts but to add to the confusion they also lack the black head, which is in fact not black but chocolate brown. I find them quite attractive in this state of plumage. The picture above was taken yesterday but to compare to an adult in full breeding plumage, here is a picture of one taken in July 2011.
You can clearly see the chocolate brown head which does not cover the entire head. They are a very slender, elegant gull. They nest in association with terns, either Common or Sandwich, the terns benefit from protection from the gulls who are slightly larger and perhaps more aggressive, however the gulls probably nest close to the terns for the opportunity to steal food from the terns and also to predate their youngsters when the opportunity presents itself. This is called "kleptoparasitism", a posh word which combines theif and parasite, probably a good description of most gulls! Having recently visited Langstone Harbour where there is a good breeding colony of Common Tern and Black headed Gull I found it interesting to read about them on Peter Drury's website
This is an adult (below) photographed yesterday showing the clean tail and difference in head at this time of the year when the birds are not in breeding plumage.
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