A short sequence taken on Friday of some of the small colony of four lesser black-backed gulls that are nesting on the roofs at the University of Brighton’s Falmer campus. The majority of gulls there are herring gulls, and the lesser black-backeds are easily overlooked. They are a similar size to herring gulls and the obvious difference is their darker wings (not quite as black as the great blacked gull). The other main distinguishing feature are their yellow legs. There are also differences around the eyes.

This first one had been rooting around in the gutters on the roof of one of the buildings. The marks on its face are not ‘distinguishing’ marks. It’s just dirty!

Here’s another (cleaner) one of the group.

And on the wing. Note the red ring around the eye. That is a distinguishing mark.

Later in the day I spotted one of the group over at Falmer Pond. That’s a juvenile herring gull in the background of the first photo. The second image shows the yellow legs very clearly.

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.