Black-headed Gulls plus the Moon

Today's photos are a few strays from yesterday which got put to one side in favour of the buzzard sequence.

The black-headed gulls have largely replaced the larger herring gulls on the pond, and there were plenty of them out enjoying the weak winter sun.

black-headed gulls

Nothing unusual there, but take a look at this shot. In the centre there's one temporally confused bird who is proudly sporting his summer plumage!

black-headed gulls

And this one is here simply because of the light.

black-headed gull

The corvids were in evidence along the side of the pond. Inevitably a crow…

crow

…and an equally ubiquitous bird, the magpie. This one is sitting on a gravestone in the churchyard.

magpie

That was Friday. Saturday's images are restricted to these two shots of the moon.

moon

moon

Click to enlarge

And finally, a small extra. For a few days I wondered whether we had seen the last of the badgers. One of their routes (a large hole under a fence) had been blocked off, but badgers being badgers an obstacle is little more than a minor inconvenience. Sure enough the repair has been thoroughly excavated and the route is as it was.

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

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This Post Has 12 Comments

  1. derWandersmann

    2 Dec 2012

    That gull with the summer plumage … have they any idea what causes that sort of thing? I've seen it on starlings around here, and wondered … maybe some sort of hormonal dysfunction?

    Nice capture of the one coming in on his final stall!

    The magpie is a favourite, too.

    Good moon shots!

  2. serola

    2 Dec 2012

    Nice shots :up:

  3. Wulpen

    2 Dec 2012

    very nice Pict

  4. Words

    2 Dec 2012

    dW, yes it is basically hormonal. That's the breeding garb, so I guess that might make that a fairly dominant member of the flock. Or the stupid one :doh:

  5. Words

    2 Dec 2012

    Sami, thanks!

  6. Words

    2 Dec 2012

    Erwin, thanks!

  7. SittingFox

    4 Dec 2012

    Or it's possible that there's been so little distinction between summer and winter this year that they simply cannot tell :rolleyes:

  8. derWandersmann

    4 Dec 2012

    Well, I've seen that happen to trees and sometimes flowers, Adele. The times are out of joint (apologies to the Bard).

  9. gdare

    4 Dec 2012

    That third photo from the top is great :up:

    Originally posted by SittingFox:

    so little distinction between summer and winter this year

    In BC it seems like every year :awww:

  10. Words

    4 Dec 2012

    Adele, well so far winter has been sunnier and drier, though probably chillier than the summer.

  11. Words

    4 Dec 2012

    Originally posted by gdare:

    In BC it seems like every year

    That's the 'British' bit of BC.

  12. gdare

    6 Dec 2012

    Exactly 😆

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