Dunking Gull

[Wagstaff]

About two weeks ago, I noticed a lot of muck in one of the birdbaths. So I cleaned it out and thought nothing more about it. A couple of days later, I found the birdbath had more muck floating on the surface, including thin pieces of stem and different types of leaves. Again I didn’t think much about it because I’d been clearing the garden and thought that the wind may have deposited some of the residue into the bath. But, even after I had finished clearing, I still kept finding leaves etc. floating in the water.
It wasn’t until yesterday that I discovered the truth of what was happening: I “caught” a herring gull leaving the birdbath with twigs and leaves in its mouth.
I immediately realised what had been happening over the last few weeks: the gulls had been nesting and using the water in the birdbath to soften their nesting material. It must have been extremely annoying to them to discover that the material they had dunked in the morning was not there for collection in the afternoon !!
Has anybody encountered similar behaviour over the period of this dry weather ?

Wagstaff

[artdemole]

Had a wood pigeon do the same in the dry weather.