Do you remember Alfred Hitchcocks' 'The Birds'? Great film, and today's adventures in the garden brought it to mind.
The day started with a collared dove sitting prettily on our roof.
And then a wood pigeon visited the pond
Swifts were flitting overhead, and a kestrel cruised by (emptied clawed).
A peregrine followed soon after
The next sighting was the kestrel carrying its prey (previous post).
And then the return of the peregrine
The raptors were clearly busy, enjoying the first real sunshine we've had for several weeks. All very worthy, but not exactly Hitchcock territory. That came later.
And for Hitchcock, think 'Gulls'. Screaming, flocking, swooping gulls. I'm not sure what set them off but in the middle of a quiet afternoon's gardening the local gulls began to gather. Circling a few hundred yards away, they were calling to every gull in the area. And they came.
From all directions, gulls were appearing in the sky, joining the circling frenzy.
At first I though maybe a stray raptor had come in too low (the gulls have chicks right now), but the more we watched the less likely that seemed. The gulls screamed and darted, occasionally breaking off into localised spats. The main target is the darker bird in these shots. It appears to be a juvenile gull (correction welcome if I'm wrong about that).
The gulls maintained the mass circling for about 45 minutes, covering about a mile from start to finish point.
They totally ignored the occasional passing raptor.
A short video clip (worth it just for the sounds). Click the 'start' button to start the video.
SittingFox
8 Jul 2007Extraordinary! I wonder what caused all this. I was wondering if the enemy was a juvenile great black backed gull but the size does not appear to be dramatically different from the herring gulls. I simply don't see enough gulls in the North Downs to be familiar with all their juvenile plumages, unfortunately 🙁
Great to see the peregrine again, though :up:
anonymous
8 Jul 2007Camera Trap Codger writes:
The sound track is definitely Hitchcock, but your roof looks like it could withstand the onslaught. Are you still using the Canon S2 IS for these aerial shots? They're super.
Words
8 Jul 2007Adele, that's an interesting speculation. I'll need to read up on gull identification. I had noticed a couple of gulls recently which could have been black-backed gulls. It's very difficult to tell from undreneath though. I've just caught glimpses of upper wings which put the thought in my head when I saw them. If so, then this was a territorial spat.
CTC, the video was taken on the Canon S2 (good little camera but I doubt it would have focused fast enough for some of these shots). The stills are with a Canon 400D with the EF70-300mm 4.5-5.6 DO IS lens attached. I need a little more reach really and am looking at getting the 100-400 IS lens 😉
SittingFox
8 Jul 2007I saw someone walking down the inlet road recently with an absolutely enormous white Canon lens and what looked like the 5D 🙂 Enjoy that lens if you do get it.
Great black backed gulls are quite predatory and would probably eat a herring gull chick if possible. However, they are 5in bigger than a herring gull, and I would have thought the size difference would be quite obvious here. So, a mystery.
Flying Red Fox Blog
8 Jul 2007Brilliant shots and video:D, the Gulls here are noisy too, especially early morning or early evening they tend to be rather noisy, i wonder if this is because all the people on the beach have gone home for dinner and they are fighting for the food that they left behind?
Iam hard of hearing and occasionally get woken up by the Gulls in Summer lol:P
Words
10 Jul 2007Adele, well I guess the dream wildlife lens is the Canon 600mm, but I can't see myself ever getting one of those (even with a 'discount' saving of nearly £2000!). I've seen some amazing shots by Kev Lewis with one of them though.
As for the gulls, I must get a much closer look to see if there are more than just Herring Gulls around. I thought I spotted a black-headed gull flying past yesterday, but it could just be competition over nesting space. Definitely in their noisy season though, whatever the cause.