Great Black Backed Gulls

2022 highlights of a wilder Orkney life (part 1)

2022 was a very happy time for me on my visits to Orkney. I spent hours on the low cliffs and rocks …

Once species chasing another is the order of the day. Inter-species conflict is breaking out all over the island. We’ve had an …

You may be the great Baakie, Lord of All He Surveys, largest gull in the entire world, but you’re still going to …

Hunter, pirate, scavenger, the Great Black-Backed Gull is a curious opportunist. It is the apex predator unless a White-Tailed Sea Eagle appears. …

We are at Noup Head watching the birds fly by. We get a close pass from a Great Black-Backed Gull. Aren’t they …

Great Skuas, Stercorarius skua, are known as Bonxies in Orkney. Their flashing go-faster white wing-stripes are a familiar sight as they patrol …

We have the largest gull in the world in the waters around our coast. And it is magnificent. The Fauna Orcadensis by …

In the battle of Bonxie v Baakie there was only ever going to be one winner. It was the Bonxie. Here it …

Bonxie v Baakie. Who do you think will win the epic battle of the fish? It’s Great Skua v Great Black-Backed Gull …

Today I’m heading north to the most desolate coastline on Westray. Here, even the lichens and seaweeds and barnacles struggle to maintain …

The seas are magical here. There are exhilarating waves at the Knowe o’ Skea. Out on the skerries, the wary Shags gather, …

Great Black Backed Gulls are properly massive. And I mean massive. And their beaks? Massive too. Seeing one call overhead on Westray …

My adventures on the fifth of five days walking the entire coast of Westray.

Great Black Backed Gulls are gulls, yet on an epic scale. Seeing one coming towards you is quite a sight: That’s some …

Gulls are confusing. They all look superficially the same with their big bills, grey backs and beady eyes, but there are some …

Forty years ago I spotted a Great Black Backed Gull and noted it down in my nature notebooks: Today I’m in Dartmouth …