Monday, January 29, 2007

Ever the Opportunist.

Silver Gulls rarely miss an opportunity for a free feed! I was looking through some images that I shot this morning while on a walk along the rocky shore at Tranmere. I thought I'd photographed a Silver Gull calling madly at my intrusion, as they often do. However, as I looked closer, I realised it was in pursuit of, and about to catch, an insect, as you may see on close inspection of the image at left. The insect in question, is a European Wasp, which it caught, as I saw in the subsequent shot. The Silver Gull joins a growing list of birds that take these introduced pests, if only rarely. The list includes Noisy Miner and Yellow Wattlebird.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amazing shot, Alan!

And it's great to think that SOMETHING will eat these pests!

BirdingTas said...

Hi John,
I can't claim any special expertise over the shot, it was purely "accidental", and yes it is good to see that some birds will eat wasps--they can wreck a BBQ!

Anonymous said...

Accidental or no -- great shot! I enjoyed getting to know the Silver Gulls when I stayed in Sydney a couple of years ago, but I never saw anything this dramatic. Bravo.

Snail said...

Wow! Accident or not, that's a great shot.

I've been trying to track down a European wasp nest in the neighbourhood. They're living somewhere nearby and have started buzzing around my garden looking for food and stripping wood from the fence, Vandals!

Maybe I should just encourage the gulls ...