Caswell Bay - Mediterranean Gull

Thought it might make a change to post some bird images! A family holiday on the Gower didn't produce that much, although I was hoping the briefly seen Pacific Swift came my way? So, my travelling light lens  / camera was in the bag during a morning on the beach at Caswell Bay.

It's a busy tourist beach but that never deters Mediterranean Gulls and there was one loitering around the shore break...

If you totted up all the gull species images on this blog, I have no doubt Med Gulls would be the clear winner! They are so photogenic and here's some more...

But there's only so many static poses and this bird was quite mobile!

As the tide came in it seemed to be quite preoccupied in picking up tiny morsels...

And in this short series he clearly picked up something from the sand in flight!

You have to use the eye of faith but it looks like a small Shrimp species...

And no, I'm not adding crustaceans to my interests!!

'Footnote' The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noted that the right foot / lower leg is missing! I've seen a few over the years in the Gower with this deformity but haven't a clue how it arises?

Gower - Chough!

During a cliff-top walk, I spotted a group of five Chough at the cliff edge :-) Sensing what the result would be if I approached them, I took a wide detour around them and sat on the slope of a mound in between me and the birds. It worked (well for one of them!) as it hopped up from the other side...

I thought it would fly off immediately but no, it wandered over the brow towards me!

After a bit of a stare...

It simply started feeding!

Picking up quite tine tasty morsels...

And my now, a mere 10m away!

I was only carrying my 100-400 lens and most of the shots were frame fillers!

But not quite enough to crop this small shrimp like invertebrate much closer!

Down the hatch...

I've had one or two encounters with Chough in the past but nothing to match this. Awesome bird in  fantastic light. One of my luckier moments indeed...