Please help identify these seabirds

[wildfirejc]

We live in the Romney Marsh area. Every evening, we see flocks of these birds flying from the Aggregate Pits/Lakes area in the west towards the Dungeness/Littlestone sea. They fly silently and only flex their elbows in a lazy sort of way. Do birds have elbows? I mean - they don't flap their whole wingspan. Could anyone identify them for us? I've taken some shots but it's difficult against the setting sun.

[nikolai_avenger]

Perhaps black headed gulls..

[Gill Catton]

Its very likely to be mixed gulls including herring gull, lesser black-backed gull and black headed gill (which you would notice as being much smaller), with perhaps smaller numbers of greater black backed gull and common gulls too. There may even be smaller numbers still of rarer gulls such as yellow-legged gull or Mediterranean gull that will sometimes join large gull roosts. Hope this helps!! A local birder may be able to give you an idea as to the likely most common species.

[wildfirejc]

Hmmm...I do see lots of black headed gulls when I drive past the lakes but these ones flying across are white...if you enlarge those bad photos I took, there isn't any sign of black heads...

[kestrel76]

I think those ones in that picture may be Herring Gulls but I must admit that I`m not certain.

[rossy]

those are definitely not black headed gulls, possibly herring gulls as stated but im not certain, rossy,

[Gill Catton]

With the behaviour you describe, the identification of the birds in the photo is unlikely to be the identification of all of the gulls you see making the flights . Its very likely to be more than one species in these 'roosting' flights.

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by wildfirejc

Hmmm...I do see lots of black headed gulls when I drive past the lakes but these ones flying across are white...if you enlarge those bad photos I took, there isn't any sign of black heads...

Its also worth pointing out that black-headed gull develop a white head come autumn/ winter with a little dark smudge behind the eye but no brown face.

[RoyW]

The two in your larger picture are Herring Gulls. The three in the other picture are probably also Herring Gulls but could be similar species (eg. Lesser Black-backed Gulls).
Gill is 100% correct though in saying that you are probably seeing a mix of species. I would say that the gulls that you see heading to roost will definitely include Herring, Lesser Black-backed, Great Black-backed, Yellow-legged, Common, Black-headed, and occasionally Meditterranean (varying numbers of each species depending on the time of year) - and there will also sometimes be other scarcer species joining them in small numbers (usually single birds which may go unnoticed among the other species).

Originally Posted by wildfirejc

Do birds have elbows? I mean - they don't flap their whole wingspan.

Birds do have a joint which is the counterpart of our elbow, but the more obvious bend in a birds wing is actually what would be the wrist joint in humans. If these gulls only appear to be moving the outer part of the wing, then you could say that they are flying with their 'hands' (not exactly true but it is probably the closest approximation).

[wildfirejc]

Thank you all! I'll now just enjoy the daily sights and not feel that I may be witnessing some special rare species flying past.