Page 18 - Out Birding Spring 2023

SabineÕs Gull in Kent
In recent years I have become more interested in gulls,
well mainly the smaller ones. So, at the beginning of
November when I heard there was a juvenile Sabine’s
gull at Port Lympne near Ashford in Kent I just had go
there. As I drove up the roadway towards the parking
area at the Safari Park I was surprised to see a small
gull with well-defined brown-grey scalloping on its
back and wings there near the edge of the grass
oblivious to everything except finding food. In the
company of a small flock of Black-headed Gulls it
looked curiously diminu􏰀ve but when they came too
close the Sabine’s put its head down and ran at the
larger gulls. Unconcerned by the growing number of
photographers gathering, it con􏰀nued searching for
food close by and when one photographer threw it
some biscuits it readily accepted this easy snack. Its
diet is varied and includes insects and their larvae,
worms, crustaceans, small fish and some􏰀mes fish remains thrown from fishing boats. On rare occasions it will take the young and eggs of birds including preda􏰀ng its own species.
Sabine’s Gull breeds in the Arc􏰀c, Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Siberia then migrates south for the winter. Birds from eastern Canada and Greenland o􏰁en migrate to the waters off South Africa, crossing the Atlan􏰀c and Western edges of Europe, so perhaps this explains how the juvenile ended up in Kent.
Birds take two years to reach full adult plumage. The black bar seen across the ends of the juvenile’s tail in flight will be lost in the moult to adult and whilst main- taining the white triangular areas on its large wings the brown–grey scalloping on the juvenile’s back and wing
coverts become a smooth paler grey and the narrow triangular darker brown on the outer primaries turns black.
Another iden􏰀fying feature is that it is one of the few gulls to have a forked tail in flight although Port Lympne juvenile wasn’t displaying it. The handsome breeding adult has a dark grey hood with a slim black border outlining its edge with the bird’s white nape. Its beak is black with a yellow 􏰀p, its eyes have a red orbital ring and its legs are black.
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