Making a statement

There's always somebody in the group who feels the need to command the conversation...

Today I photographed 3 species not yet listed for the BlipBigYear. What to do?! Who wins?

Well. The gulls win. Not just because it continues in the tradition of yesterday, in which the subject's mouth is fantastically agape, but because it completes the NZ Gull trifecta for The List. The gulls are now all accounted for!

Oamaru mostly has Red-Billed Gulls, which, of the country's two small gulls, breed on the coasts. I thought I'd go check for the Black Bills down at the beach anyway, and in fact they were there, 4 or 5 of them mixed in with a couple dozen Red Bills. While they look very similar to the Reds, this behavior of strutting around with bill spread wide, squawking horrendously, seems to be distinctive to the Blacks. I love it--they look at once very disturbed and very emphatic about whatever it is they're trying to say.

I've blipped the species once before, on 14th Dec 2012. It was a backblip at the time and so got kind of lost in the shuffle, but it's one of my favorites that I've done in New Zealand so far. Just like this one, it's a window into some of the Black-Billed Gull's rich character.