Herring Gulls

Here's a genuine Brighton marina gull. It's keeping one eye on the Asda parking lot for food and one on the pesky photographer approaching (me). Note the orange spot on the beak, which is where the young knock on to request some food being horked up for them.

gullface.jpg


I have no idea where or what this next seagull is, but it takes the cake for being even cheekier than the Brighton ones, and that's an accomplishment!

 
I wonder if Jimmy -the-gull is sufficiently amenable to have one of those mini-gps tracking capsule jobbies attached to his ankle - it would be fascinating to know where he gets to....

We reckon he has a little home on the cliffs in Europa Point round the corner probably because his visits are as regular as clockwork, so the accuracy of his timekeeping is amazing, you would think he has wristwatch, LOL.

I have considered a tracking device.

The Ornitholgical Society has a variety of hawks and eagles under their care and these have ankle transmitting / tracking devices.
One eagle was fitted with a miniature camera and filmed incredible views of the rock as it circled at around 2000 feet.

The problem would not be a transmitter. The problem would be setting up a long chain of recievers to track its movement to and from here, which I estimate to be hundreds of miles.

Because bad weather normally approaches the Strait from the west I assume he flies off to Morocco, but I am not discounting he may alternatively also fly to the Algarve and back or even to Malaga or as far as Denia perhaps.

This is because not all flying is flapping and effort. A lot of it involves gliding, probably taking advantage of thermals.
 
You wouldn't need a chain of receivers if you knew he was going to return and you didn't need to monitor him live. I have a GPS watch which stores my track and speed when I am out running, and it uploads the data whenever I am within a few metres of my desk at home.
 
You wouldn't need a chain of receivers if you knew he was going to return and you didn't need to monitor him live. I have a GPS watch which stores my track and speed when I am out running, and it uploads the data whenever I am within a few metres of my desk at home.

That's right. A friend has a tiny one for his cat (which on occasion has alibied the animal, such as when a neighbour's rubbish was strewn around her drive). The chip (or something) has to be physically removed to transfer data to a PC.
 
That's right. A friend has a tiny one for his cat (which on occasion has alibied the animal, such as when a neighbour's rubbish was strewn around her drive). The chip (or something) has to be physically removed to transfer data to a PC.

That's very interesting. But it has to be very small and light. The bird weighs about I would say 2 - 3 Lbs.
I will make enquiries.
 
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