Lauwersmeer: Great Black-backed Gull (juvenile)

Posted by Illuci (Hurdegaryp, Netherlands) on 2 March 2008 in Animal & Insect.

I could approach this youngster so close (I have no tele-lens) because he seemed to have a lamed wing. He was hanging about around the entrance of a big hall in the harbour where the fish is sorted out and prepared for transport. After I took the picture. however, I checked on my camera's backscreen, and when I turned my head, he was gone. I thought I saw him fly. Maybe he thought I was one of the fish hall employees and had something delicious for him... bad luck!
He has a ring on his leg which means he is under ornithological study. Anyway, he is used to human company.

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Comments (9)

e. from New York, NY, United States

Wow, beautiful! The details in the feathers are incredible.

2 Mar 2008 2:09am

@e.: Thanks e! The story is incredible and I still have to think to it: a gull pretending a handicap in order to get something delicious... Would it be true? Animals are very inventive in how they can get food, and gulls are intelligent. As sea-animals they're often found in cities far from the sea because of the food they can find there.

vu@granby - Wolfgang Prigge from Granby, QC, Canada

You are right about the gulls going far inland to find food. There are thousands of them around the waste disposal facilities in Ottawa or Toronto. It has come to a point where they are a health problem, they have been called "flying rats"!

2 Mar 2008 9:27am

@vu@granby - Wolfgang Prigge: Evolution biologist say that gulls are now in a stage developing one or more land-adapting species that will eventually loose the webs between their toes, and bills no longer suited to catch fish. I once read that somewhere.

Carmen Lapierre from Granby, Canada

Very nice pictice, i love it.

2 Mar 2008 1:28pm

Ana Lúcia from Leiria, Portugal

Splendid capture.

2 Mar 2008 1:59pm

Scarabaeus from Manchester, United Kingdom

Nice photo.

2 Mar 2008 4:28pm

standley from Brou-sur-Chantereine, France

Very nice capture. I like the angle!

2 Mar 2008 5:06pm

Rebecca from Leicester, United Kingdom

Amazing capture. The detail is truly nothing less than outstanding.

2 Mar 2008 5:38pm

HorseRotorVator from Newton, United States

Isn't it amazing that birds can go to the bathroom anywhere they like and everyone thinks they are so wonderful. But if I try it they don't think I am wonderful. Cool shot pal. Now I know what an ornithological study is. I am going to go look that up. :)

3 Mar 2008 1:16pm

the lightwriter from oosterwolde, Netherlands

Hi Iluci, You as a bird-catcher? This is a nice specimen. I always liked these kind of seagulls.

3 Mar 2008 2:33pm

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SONY CYBERSHOT
1/160 second
F/4.5
ISO 100
21 mm