Large Gulls and chicks on Copeland Island (7)

As mentioned in a prior post last week, when I was visiting Copeland Island in June, there were 2 young people with us from Glasgow University who were doing research on Herring Gulls.  Nina was positioned in the stone hide while Richard had a portable hide and they allowed me to observe what they were doing.   Overlooking both sites there were both Herring and Lesser Black backed Gulls.

They also had set up this camera on one of the nest that had 3 chicks.  Obviously that Herring Gull had something to say about that!!

At the end of the post I have a short video of Richard erected the hide.  Unfortunately I do not have recorded an very funny incident of me climbing into it but missed the bar and with my camera and binoculars swung round my neck and I moved backwards at speed, until I fell down laughing.  Richard was concerned I was OK but I was more worried about my camera!!!  All was well.

This is the view from the hide.

These are Richard’s notes and a map of the 10 nest that he was watching.  He looked at each of these nest every 5-10 minutes and record his findings.

Herring Gull and chick.

Lesser Black backed Gull.

We do not have many Great Black backed gulls seen on this island but I thought this was an unusual shot to see all 3 of our large gulls in a row.  It is a good way to see the size differences between them. From L to R there are Lesser BB , Herring and GBB Gull.

These young Herring Gulls were flapping their wings and hoping to be able to fly very soon.

One thing I am not good at is flight shots so These are the best I could get of the Lesser Black backed Gull.

It was time to go and see Nina so this is my parting shot with Richard still in the hide.  They did 4 hours at a time.

Do you see the 3 fluffy chicks above however it was not long before Mum had them underneath her again.

This is a shot of Nina at the top of a cliff surrounded by screaming birds.

Aren’t these chick so lovely!

I hope you enjoyed seeing these gulls with their chicks and tomorrow you will see a video of some of the young birds I found on the island including a gull being born.  

You can access the video at

http://youtu.be/RelLj-JKSTM

If there is a black space below, click it and the video will appear.

Thank you for visiting.

Many thanks for leaving comments on my post.