Black-headed gulls have moved inland, and can be seen in flocks everywhere — on rubbish dumps, ploughed fields and playing fields. They will eat almost anything animal. When the wind blows strong, they all stand facing into it so that their feathers do not get ruffled. They line up like this on the crossbar of a goalpost. When they take wing, they ride the wind very gracefully, tilting and dipping with the currents. Their tail opens like a white fan, and in the air they can be easily be distinguished by the white line along the front of their grey wings. At present they do not have the dark hood of their summer plumage, only a mark behind the eye. In the evening they fly to reservoirs to roost.
Herring gulls also come inland in winter, and some nest in summer on flat roofs in cities, but the majority of them stay on the coast. They are large birds, quite at home in strong winds over the sea.
They have a hooked yellow beak with a red spot, and they eat fish, but they prefer to get it the easy way, picking up waste behind fishing boats.
DJM