Recognising seagulls, a beautiful pest…

The cute seagull chick that started it all - pictured on the building site behind my office...

I wasn’t expecting to write about seagulls. They are not my favourite birds and apart from the black-headed gull I have never been able to tell the various species apart and I have never really tried.

Cardiff has the second-biggest urban seagull population in the UK, a close second to Aberdeen with around 3,500 breeding pairs. They are considered a pest by Cardiff Council, stealing food from outdoor tables in the cafe quarter, dive-bombing pedestrians who come near their roof-top nests and above all ripping open plastic rubbish bags left out for collection by the aforementioned council.

Until a couple of years ago the newspaper office where I worked had seagulls nesting on the roof and they often perched on the window ledges and watched us on the subs desk. In the 1980s we had a lovely old sub-editor called Ray Harry who would open the window and put out bread for the gulls.

I recall one day he wasn’t in, but the seagull came to the window ledge anyway. Another lovely sports sub-editor, Reg Pearson, said he would prove to us the seagull could read. So he wrote on a sheet of paper “Ray’s not here. P*** off!” and of course when he held it up to the window the seagull left…

Sadly Ray and Reg, gentlemen of the sub-editing trade, are now gone.
But back to the present day. We have now moved into a tall structure raised on what was the back car park of our former office and the old building we worked in has now been demolished.

For a year or so the site has been a concrete waste with a few scrubby weeds – and a delightful but unintentional pond in the middle where rain has gathered in the deep central abyss where the printing-press used to be.

There are plans to build a posh hotel or luxury flats but they have been on hold since the recession came along.

Another view of 'my' gull chick - the legs remind me of an ostrich...

The fenced-off area does, however, make an ideal nest site for seagulls and for the last few weeks we have all noticed the three seagull chicks wandering around in this cage. There’s no denying it. They are cute. When I posted a picture of one of them on Flickr and Tweeted it, I had quite a few retweets and the image had 119 hits in a day, which is quite a lot for me…

I mentioned the chicks to a graphic designer friend – a vegetarian – and said it was a shame seagulls were such a pest, as the chicks were really quite cute. He said they aren’t a pest, they are beautiful. And it’s not their fault – it’s the council’s for not giving people wheelie bins for their rubbish and for attracting the gulls by putting food waste into landfill sites.

That pulled me up short. My opinion changed instantly. When you think about it, Cardiff is on the coast and it’s quite natural for gulls to nest in the man-made concrete “cliffs” of our city.

So I vowed to look more closely at gulls and work out which species is which. So here goes…

According to my book The Birdlife of Britain, by Peter Hayman and Philip Burton (Mitchell Beazley, 1976), there are five main seagulls you are likely to see in British cities – four are easily confused but I will leave the black-headed gull, which is easy to identify, until last.

The herring gull – Larus argentatus

The herring gull (Larus argentatus) by Andreas Trepte...

This herring gull is the big gull of everyone’s seaside imagination. I identified one in a side-street only last night – they have pink legs and feet and comparatively pale grey backs, which to me are the biggest clues.

Having worked that out, I am now told by the RSPB that a new yellow-legged species (Larus michahellis) has just been recognised…

The yellow-legged herring gull (Larus michahellis) by Diliff

The common gull – Larus canus

The common gull (Larus canus) by Andreas Trepte - note the dark eye...

Mmm, although it’s called the common gull, it is the least common in the UK. It is small like the black-headed gull (see later) but coloured like the herring gull, except for the beguiling dark eye and the yellow/flesh-coloured legs.

The RSPB site suggests it is rather like the kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), but looking at the distribution maps I think I am only likely to see that in summer around our South Wales coasts, while the common gull would be seen here in winter. I don’t expect to see either in the city centre.

Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) by Dick Daniels

The great black-backed gull – Larus marinus

Great black-backed gull (Larus marinus) by Andreas Trepte - note the very dark back...

The great black-backed gull is a huge and predatory bird, catching and eating small birds and their young, rabbits and rodents.

They swallow chicks whole and when eating a larger animal pick it clean and leave the skin turned inside out (according to The Birdlife of Britain).

Their head has a longer profile than most other gulls and their backs are very dark grey. Their legs seem to be greyish pink.

My picture of a great black-backed gull (Larus marinus) and juvenile in summer at the Knap, South Wales...

The lesser black-backed gull – Larus fuscus graellsii

Lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus graellsii) by Andreas Trepte...

At last – I can recognise the seagull whose chick I pictured the other day. It seems to be a lesser black-backed gull.

My picture of a chick and adult lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus graellsii) on the building site behind our office...

The lesser black-backed gull is lighter in colour than the great black-backed gull but darker than the herring gull. It is smaller than both. It has yellow legs but its delicate face, I believe, differentiates it from the yellow-legged variety of herring gull mentioned above.

Here is another picture of “my” chick…

Lesser black-backed gull chick (Larus fuscus graellsii) on the building site behind our office...

The black-headed gull – Larus ridibundus or Chroicocephalus ridibundus

Chocolate-brown head and red beak of black-headed gull (Larus ridibundus) in summer...

Wikipedia now uses the Latin name Chroicocephalus ridibundus for the black-headed gull, rather than Larus. I guess it’s fair to put it in a different genus, as it isn’t very like the other four gulls mentioned above.

The black-headed gull actually has a chocolate-brown head – and in fact throughout most of the year it doesn’t even have that. In winter its head turns white with just a dark crescent behind the eye. It has bright red bill and legs in the breeding season, orange in winter.

My picture of a winter-white black-headed gull (Larus ridibundus) at the Knap, South Wales...

This is the smallest town and seaside gull and to me is instantly recognisable. I have seen it all my life, including when I was a child in the country and saw flocks following the plough on farmland.

A word here on the name “gull” – apparently it comes from the Celtic word voilen (ancestor to the Welsh word gwylan).

A gull used to be called a “mew”, from Old English maew , echoing the sound the bird makes. But now the word “gull” seems to have taken over in popular usage.

Finally, I hope I have helped in your identification of these magnificent birds – and next time one drops its guano on you from a great height, remember the seagulls were here first…