Herring gull chicks test flight

All around my home there is the sound of demanding herring gull chicks as their are several nests nearby. I also keep a close on the nest, on the roof tops behind our bungalow, between the stacks of the chimney.

They have reared three chicks, perfectly camouflaged on the roof tops.

Today they have started to practice flight in earnest, leaping from the ridge of the roof and landing further down the tiles, before marching back up to the top and having another go.

As soon as one of the chicks start to exercise its wings, the parents go into defence mode, shouting at anyone or anything that come close.

Or dives on any potential intruder

Return of the prodigal son (or daughter)!

A big surprise today. I looked up at the roof where the gulls were nesting and there was a young seagull.

At first I thought it might be one of the other gulls nearby, more developed and able to fly.

But watching this chick flapping and hopping around the roof it could not have flown there.

The chick is now very big, you can see here compared to a collar dove.

The chick must have jumped down from the chimney and onto the roof and been hidden on the otherside of the house. However, before it disappeared the chick was calling all the time but I have not heard a sound from there since it disappeared on 23rd June.

The chicks on roof out the front are all still there, these two well developed one and a smaller one in the gully.

Herring gulls and first flight

A drizzly windy day and ideal conditions for a herring gull chicks first flight.
Every time the wind picked up one of the chicks became very active bouncing up and down with wings open.

After a couple of false alarms, the chick launched itself into the air and managed a very awkward and short first flight

Touch down.

Herring gulls get a lot of bad press, being called noisy, blamed for tearing open bin bags and generally being a pest. However, as is often the case this has been largely due to us messy humans providing the gulls (who scavenge as part of their natural diet) an easy food source. At the same time we are over fishing the seas and putting pressure on our coastline causing gulls to adapt to a different lifestyle. In recent years UK herring gulls have declined by about 25% and they are now listed as a red status species.

Herring gulls and swifts

For the last couple of days the herring gulls in the main nest site I have been following are preparing for flight. There has been a lot of wing flapping and wing stretching activity. One even jumped up and and down a few times.

The swifts are still performing ariel displays.

Shadow on the road as a swift screams overhead.

I will miss them when they leave for their winter home in Africa, usually in August.

Now that the young have fledged there has been a lot of coming and going from the nest site.

In the past this has been quite discreet, a single bird breaking away from the rest and making a low silent entry to the nest. Today there is a lot of screaming and almost a atmosphere of excitement.

Herring gull behaviour, goldfinch and great tits

There is a lot of bird activity in the garden most days. Goldfinches continually pass through the garden and one or more sing from either the top of the tree or the TV ariel. The great tit family is still visiting.

The seagull activity has stepped up a notch. Now that the various herring gulls nesting in the area have chicks, they are easily disturbed by other gulls flying by and kicking up a commotion.

Seagulls do get a bad press, but they are fascinating to watch. What other bird of its size do we get the chance to get so close to. Seagulls are opportunists and due to the mess and waste we produce, seagulls have moved into towns and cities to nest on our roof tops.

The herring gulls nesting to the back of our house are the pair I can observe the most. The chicks are more mobile and what can start of as a peaceful scene can quickly change if another gull gets too near.


A nearby gull has disturbed the adult who is letting the intruder know its unhappy in its usual raucous manner.


Soon other gulls fly from their nests and come to see what all the noise is about, adding their own voices to the pandemonium.


On cliff tops, this behaviour is more likely to be triggered by a potential threat and this behaviour would focus on driving away the attacker. When gulls nest on roof tops, it is people who are sometimes on the receiving end of this behaviour.

Many gulls from all around join in the "ariel combat" and while the odd gull will swoop at another there is no physical contact between the gulls.

With no real threat to contend with the gulls eventually loose steam and head off back to their own nests and peace rains again for a while.

Herring gull chick, blue tit fledgelings, egg laying damselflies and leaf cutter bees

As a follow on to my blog entry 25th April, the seagull up on the roof top behind our house now has 2 chicks. They are grey with darker spots. This will become the mottled brown plumage as they loose theri downy feathers.

As I mentioned previously they seem a lot more chilled out than the other herring gulls nesting on houses in our road.

In the early afternoon, while doing some gardening I heard the demanding calls of baby birds coming from the tree that overhangs our back garden. Two adult blue tits could be seen collecting insects on the outside branches and then disappearing into the tree.

I looked up through the branches of the tree and after a while I noticed fluttering movements of a baby blue tit.
The chicks demanding calls attracted one of the adults who fed it and then flew away in search of more food.

They were very difficult to photograph as they kept moving around and the many branches made it difficult to focus. I went back to the tree every now and then to check on the family. One chick flew out of the tree, looped round to the side and disappeared within the canopy.

While I was looking up from beneath the tree, a chick flew down through the branches and across the greenhouse below almost flying into me before looping back up onto a low branch.

It watched me for a while and then edged its way back up the branch and fluttered its wings and called for more food. Whilst the blue tits had not hatched from a nest in the tree, I did notice a large fledged blackbird chick from the nest in this tree.

It was only distinguishable by its beak which still had the traces of its chick gape.

In between watching the blue tits I noticed that the damselflies had started to lay eggs on the pond weed.

There were three pairs locked together as the female deposited her eggs.

Also today, the leaf cutter bees had started to visit the bush at the back of the pond. Unlike honey and bumble bees, leaf cutter bees are solitary bees. They dig a tunnel in the ground and make the egg cell chambers by cutting circular pieces from leaves.

Only certain leaves are used. The bee roles the piece of leaf as it is cut so it can be carried beneath its body. Followers of this blog will remember that I found an old leaf cutter been nest in one of the window boxes I cleaned out earlier this month. These bees were flying over our roof and disappeared.