Rossi

Meet Rossi, he is the adult Ring-billed Gull that was so elusive on our last visit to Westcliff-on-Sea, but today he posed for us nicely. Rossi was first recorded in the winter of 1999/2000 and has been coming back each winter to the same stretch of seafront. He's been given the name of Rossi by local birdwatchers due to the fact that it can often be found near to the Rossi ice cream parlour, and that's exactly where he was today.

Ring-billed Gulls are a North American species with perhaps up to 50 occurrences in the UK annually. They are intermediate in size and character between Common Gulls and Herring Gulls, not as gentle-looking as the former or as robust as the latter.

In North America, the Ring-billed Gull breeds in the Northwest from the prairies of Canada to California. It is also found in the Great Lakes region, the Canadian Maritimes, and northern New England. It winters from southern New England south to Cuba, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and from British Columbia to Mexico. It eats insects, seeds, grain, fish and garbage. It is often called the "fast food gull" because of its habit of hanging around fast food restaurants scavenging for food.