No laughing matter: feeding frenzy on Wareham Quay

The usual Saturday bird-feeders came to the quay this morning, and the usual quota of juvenile mute swans (Cygnus olor), mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) and black-headed gulls (Larus/Chroicocephalus ridibundus) were waiting for them.

My initial photos show several black-headed gulls in the air, waiting to intercept the crumbs before they reach the river. Then, as their lady feeder walked away, some of the gulls swooped onto the quay to mop up the crumbs which had fallen out of her bag.

I then took two more photos, five seconds apart.

In the first there are three gulls - let us call them, from closest to furthest away, Alpha, Bravo and Charlie - sweeping the quay in line abreast, moving from left to right, close together in search of booty. Within the intervening seconds two more gulls (Delta and Echo) landed and the initially close formation broke up.

My photo for this Blip shows records how things developed. On the original - but cropped out here, as I had inadvertently chopped off his feet - is Alpha, now heading towards the bottom left corner, with a large piece of crust in his beak; just imagine he is there. You can see Beta heading downwards and to the right, swallowing a white piece of bread. Both Alpha and Beta have their backs to the other three, to conceal their booty. Charlie hasn't changed position, but has found himself face to face with Delta and Echo - and Delta is expressing interest in the tasty brown piece of crust lying between them.

A few seconds in the busy lives of black-headed gulls... You can watch their antics for a long time without tiring of them, and of course you have the option of increasing the adrenalin rush by letting them know that you have some interesting food with you.

The irony (lost on the gulls, who have no sense of humour) is that their heads are not even black.