Pacific Gull

I was really looking forward to Paladian's birthday so we could go down to the South Coast to do some more bird and landscape photography.

When we got out of the car at Second Valley we were just about blown away as it was blowing an absolute gale.

Right near the Jetty Paladian spotted a pair of Pacific Gulls. We quickly negotiated and it was agreed that I could have the shot. It also so happened that I still had the long zoom on the camera from yesterday and it was just perfect for what I wanted to do.

Then it was back to the car where I changed lenses and shot a series of landscapes around the beach, cliffs and jetty.

We were pretty well blown inside out after an hour or so, and went back to our motel room, to feast on crab and prawns for our evening meal. Followed by Haig's chocolates. Very decadent :))

The Pacific Gull is a very large black-backed gull with a massive yellow bill, broadly tipped with scarlet. The upper wings and wingtips are wholly black with a narrow white inner trailing edge, the tail is white with a broad black band near the end. The legs are yellow to orange-yellow. The bird is about twice the size of a regular silver gull.

It has a curious habit of dropping turban shells and other molluscs, especially limpets and mussels, from a height onto a rock in order to break them open. On some islands and headlands, this has resulted in the formation of 'middens' of shell fragments that could be mistaken for ancient natural beach deposits.

The Pacific Gull is endemic to southern Australia and occurs mostly on south and west coasts, Tasmania and infrequently on the east coast.

Bigger beak