Flight of the rings

As its the month of ring billed gulls I will now write yet another post about them. Perhaps I have some sort of ring billed gull stalker problem because these guys seem to show up just about anywhere. There is the Atlantic pond ring bill (Dell), the Gate cinema ring bill and the bird below is a ring bill I found across from the bus station. It is of course entirely possible that the later bird is the same individual scouting up and down the river but no matter.

As is the habit of ring bills, this one only stuck around for a few minutes, preferring to pursue the flocks of screaming black heads rather then show up for food directly (turns out gulls really like bits of leftover plaice, who knew!). Got some half decent flight shots.

Also some more shots of the Atlantic pond ring bill. Probably the same individual as before though its hard to say.

In other news I spotted my old friends the peregrines again, first I saw one sitting on a radio antennae (or something of the kind) by city hall and then a few minutes later I saw it first capturing a pigeon in mid air and then dragging it down with great effort to a nearby rooftop all the while being chased by both the other peregrine and a group of screaming gulls. Next the still alive pigeon continued to struggle for a couple of minutes with one of the peregrine’ s talons holding its wing firmly. The kill soon followed and the other peregrine started screaming at it for a portion. The pictures below, while hardly of super quality do quite nicely tell the story. Got to love bird theatre!