Gull taking Coot Chick at Rutland Water

[riggy]

Hello

Managed to grab these shots of a Gull (one of the Black Backed I think or maybe yellow legged) taking a coot chick from the water at Rutland whilst I was watching the Osprey.





Any thoughts on the gull ID welcome
Cheers

Paul

[aeshna5]

Hi Riggy- the gull is a Lesser BB + they are regular predators of young water/sea birds. Interesting observation recorded.

[riggy]

Cheers aeshna5

Thanks for the ID


Paul

[JeffH]

An interesting series of behavioural shots Riggy - well caught

Jeff
(Schedule 1 Licence holder for Kingfishers, Barn Owls and Avocets)

[thebeard]

yep LBB gull! interesting to see this in action.

just a little tip - yellow legged gulls are pretty few and far between, but the way i try and remember them is that they are the same sort of colours as a herring gull (grey back). think a herring gull but with yellow legs. if its got yellow legs and a black back then, its a LBB gull!



edit - obviously theres a bit more to it than that lol, but thats the basics.

[riggy]

Cheers

I like to try and get these types of shots trouble is you can't always get them pin sharp due to everything happening to fast/to far away etc.

The reason I wondered if it could be a yellow leg gull was because 4 had been reported the previous day according to the website. When i first saw the gull come round I thought LBB but wasn't 100%. As it came round to were the coots etc where I said to the lad next to me that should put the cat (or gull i should have said!) amongst the pigeons. What suppresed me was how soon normallity resumed. In fact by the last shot you wouldn't have known anything had happened.

Cheers

Paul