{"id":2611,"date":"2013-05-25T00:05:41","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T23:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/2611"},"modified":"2013-11-01T19:32:35","modified_gmt":"2013-11-01T18:32:35","slug":"lesser-black-backed-gull-and-fighting-fox-cubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/lesser-black-backed-gull-and-fighting-fox-cubs\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesser Black Backed Gull – and fighting fox cubs"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

I'm so used to seeing herring gulls nesting on the roofs at work that I nearly missed this one. It was perched at the edge of one of the campus buildings, but if you look closely it doesn't sport the light grey of the herring gull. The black back gives part of its name, but the confirming feature is its yellow legs. This is a lesser black backed gull. They are not especially rare (in number they are slightly less common than herring gulls), but we don't see too many locally and so I put it down to a 'nice spot'.
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Looking along the roof, I rated it somewhat more highly. That was one half of a nesting pair.
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I'm going to be spoilt for choice once the chicks arrive. I'm currently watching two herring gull nests, and now this one.<\/p>\n

That was really about it for the day, but I can't leave without including a couple of photos of the fox cubs. We're beginning to get to know them. There's a smaller one (very pretty and quite bold), and another (larger) cub who is something of a bully and tries to dominate the others. This one always starts the fights. He's on top in the first photo, and one the right in the second.
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\"Nature<\/a><\/span>
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Camera note: gulls taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. Fox cubs taken with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,989],"tags":[1142,1128,847],"class_list":["post-2611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foxes","category-water-birds-birds-2","tag-cub","tag-fox","tag-lesser-black-backed-gull","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t