Seagull calls

[fredsie]

Hi all

Since moving to the coast near Liverpool I've obviously seen and heard a lot of seagulls, and love their unmistakeable whooping noise. It always reminds me of childhood seaside holidays. However when I lived in land-locked Staffordshire although I still saw many gulls (particularly wheeling en masse over the local rubbish tip!) they never made that distinctive seaside-gull noise. Why might this be?

[watsthat]

Hi Fredsie

I have been a casual bird watcher for many years and still stuggle with the calls of the more common gulls. It may be that the Herring Gull is more predominant near the coast and they do make a lot of the traditional sea side noises. BTW don`t call them seagulls, you`ll have the twitchers turning in their hides The correct term is just "gull".

Cheers
Pete

[fredsie]

Thanks - as you can see, I'm no expert (!) and hadn't really considered the fact (obvious now you mention it) that i was looking at different species with different calls.

As to "seagull" - if it's a good enough word for Chekhov . . .

[Ferret]

The calls of Gulls are very complex and despite considerable study are still not fully understood, but the ‘typical’ calls heard during the spring and summer are a mixture of pair bonding, contact calls to other members of the breeding colony and territorial calls, as the Gulls you see feeding on rubbish tips are neither breeding or holding territories you will not often hear these calls there.

Ferret

[fredsie]

As with all wildlife questions, there's always more depth to the issue than first appears, to me anyway. Thanks watsthat and Ferret