Hey! You Don't Look Like My Parent.

Lesser Black-backed Gull Chick - Larus fuscus

There has been a certain amount of drama around the gen2 rookery over the last 24 hours.

Yesterday evening, I heard some strange peeping outside and there in the middle of the road was an under-age gull chick picked out in the headlights of an approaching car. Fortunately, the courteous driver stopped and at great person risk from the swooping parents, chased it off the road and behind a neighbour's house.

Then this morning around 10am I happened to look into my own garden at just the right moment. There was the chick in plain view, unaware of the danger posed by a neighbour's cat creeping up on it. I dashed down the stairs just in time to frighten the cat off and then found a box to place the bird in.

Fortunately it was unharmed but never a peep from it and no sign of any anxious parents. It soon scoffed a slice of roast beef I found in the fridge and wet under the tap.

A phone call to the Scottish SPCA resulted in a young lady arriving an hour later to take it away for expert care.

NB
Lesser Black-backed gulls, although locally common and something of a pest, are an endangered species and as such are protected by law.