Those brutal gulls

[Dave Taylor]

As they say on the TV "Some of you may find the next item upsetting."
Whilst at Hauxley NR yesterday I observed an interesting piece of behaviour from a sub-adult Great Black-Backed Gull. The Gull was standing at the waters edge when it suddenly grabbed a Tufted Duck which, rather foolishly, had paddled close by. The Gull then hung on to the stern of the unfortunate duck whilst it paddled furiously in an attempt to escape. After maybe 10 minutes had elapsed the Tuftie had become totally exhausted and its head sunk into the water. Presumably, if not already dead, it would then have drowned. The Gull then proceeded to lunch on its capture.
Looks like the Gulls regard Hauxley as an avian McDonalds. A couple of years ago when I was up there, Lesser Black-backs reduced a brood of  8 Shelduck chicks to 3 in less than 15 minutes.
All part of nature's rich tapestry.

[Richard Green]

I suppose most humans are lucky to have Supermarkets where our dead animals and birds come ready killed,plucked and nicely packaged for us to devour whenever convenient.
Unlike places like the Egyptian desert where thousands of small birds such as Golden Orioles are trapped by humans using limesticks and then eaten, suppose these peoples are quite like those gulls