Hi abody 🙂

So what are these birds?

Use this website to find out but do not check under the letter ‘S’ – look for the letter ‘H’: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildli…/wildlife-guides/…/

These birds are herring gulls. Can you think why they got that name?

How many got the name right?

Do you see any from your windows?

Watch the video again and notice the speckled bird nearest you. What happens to it?

Most gulls live by the sea and feed on seafood. But some have adapted and changed their behaviour in order to survive. Believe it or not they are an endangered species!

In the video above, the male (Mr) herring gulls are just slightly bigger than the females (Mrs).

Challenge – can you count how many are male and  how many are female?

Do you like/not like herring gulls? Why?

 

 

 

Challenge – can you draw this bird? They are big!!

Extra intel

Bird gear

The herring gull is a mighty bird.

The beak – is good at tearing things apart, like fish. Can you see the red spot? When the chicks hit that spot with their beak, the parent opens their beak and the curdled munchies drop into the chick’s mouth 🙂

The wings – are very strong and gulls love to use them for soaring and wheeling in the sky. They need powerful wings to lift off the sea.

The feet – are designed for water – they are webbed…you’ll never see gulls landing in trees, coz they haven’t got claws 🙂

Bird young

Herring gulls usually have 1 or 2 chicks. Where I live, gulls nest on the roof. When the young start to walk, they usually fall off. Unfortunately, with our high tenements, many do not survive, but some do!

It takes the chicks a long time to learn to fly and even after they are fledged, the parents continue to feed them for much longer than many other birds.

 

Time for a Tale – this is the story of Roger the Gull

 

Some of you will have seen the big brown bird outside Woodside Primary in Aberdeen? That is a young, or immature herring gull, still expecting food. Unfortunately because people feed these birds, they find it difficult to learn to properly feed themselves.

This is a 1 year old herring gull.

What colour is its beak?

What colour are its legs?

Does it look like the adult bird?

 

 

Now watch this video and compare the two gulls in it.

Which do you think is the older one?

Can you see the one on the right has more adult feathers? And what colour are its beak and legs? This is a second year gull.

It takes 3 years for many gulls to mature into their adult feathers, or plumage.

Challenge – can you draw these two?

For more info: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/herring-gull/

If you watch the first video again, you will see the one from the second video is in it.  Birds have a ‘pecking order’. Our bird, the youngest of the group, has to wait…and wait…and is unlikely to get any food unless he can push through.

Creative time

When the gulls pass over my home they sound like they are having so much fun, I call them the gull gang. I made up a wee poem about them.

Flyby

In the darkness I lie

And through the still night air

they’re coming

My heart quickens as the crying mob approach

Raucous, noisy joyful abandon

The gull gang.

White beating wings glint eerily in the street light

They’re doing the round for the second time tonight

I long to flyby too.

Challenge – can you make up a wee poem?

Be great to hear your comments, see your drawings and hear your poems, you can add them to the Woodside or the Silverhaar facebook page 🙂
Hae a good weekend and see you on Monday 🙂