Great Black-backed Gull - 1894

Larus marinus

Resident.

A few pairs of this fine and powerful Gull nest upon the islands off our coasts. Mr. Mortimer Propert has taken its eggs on the Bishop's Rock, near St. David's, and we are informed by Mr. C. Jefterys, of Tenby, that a pair have nested on St. Margaret's Island, a small island connected by a reef of rocks, dry at low water, with Caldy. The eggs were twice taken from this nest in the summer of 1892. Mr. E. H. W. Blagg, of Cheadle, Staffordshire, tells us that a pair of great Black Backed Gulls nested on St. Margaret's Island in 1887, when he was visiting Tenby, and that there were three eggs in the nest on June 10th. It is probable that there are other nesting stations of the birds on our coasts, where we trust they may be unmolested by the egger.

The Greater Black-Backed Gull seldom leaves the shore, but we have occasionally noticed a pair in fields adjoining the coast. Mr. J. H. Salter, of Aberystwyth, writes to us that he sees the Great Black Backed Gull " about the ' llyns ' or pools on the hills in March ; it seems to go up there for the lambing season, when Ravens and Buzzards are also specially busy."

Mathew M.A. 1894, Birds of Pembrokeshire and it's Islands