The Wildlife of
Wallington

 
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Gulls - The Lesser Black-backed Gull

First seen on Monday 16th August 2021 at Wallington

Gulls are generally quite widespread and easy to see. However, I rarely see any gulls at Wallington. This one is quite common to the general area, as are Black-headed Gulls and Herring Gulls - which are similar, but have much paler wings. The greater black-backed gull is only usually found near large bodies of water such as the sea or reservoirs. You can clearly see the another difference - Lesser Black-backed Gills have yellow legs (Herring gulls and greater black-backed have pink legs). Confusingly, there is another species, called the Yellow-legged Gull, which is paler than the Lesser Black-backed Gull. In fact it looks exactly like this one (which is rather pale). However, they are only usually found much further south. This Lesser Black-backed Gull was lurking around the overflow car park, along with a juvenile - probably looking for scraps of food left by picnickers.