WITHIN seconds of my American grandson Tom buying an ice cream on Lyme Regis seafront in Dorset, he was buffeted around the head by wings and his vanilla scoop vanished from its cone. We all laughed and told him it had been a ‘great British seaside experience’. Tom laughed, too—but, in truth, he had become another victim of the sort of opportunist theft that afflicts many a beach and promenade, for gulls are notoriously bold exponents of the natural practice known as kleptoparasitism. In layman’s terms, this means hanging around with the certainty of stealing a meal and it sustains a broad spectrum of taxa, from seaborne scroungers to buccaneering bugs.
However, it’s the birds that we most readily identify. Gulls do not need holidaymakers and carelessly managed fast food to trigger their thieving instinct. Many naturalists have recorded their ruthless interception of puffins returning from underwater forays miles out to sea with beaks full of sand eels. Although they scavenge any food that they can find, our coastal gulls are known to specialise in harassing the colourful little birds until they release their catch before they can take refuge in their burrows. Incidentally, the puffins, known around parts of the Severn estuary as Lundy birds or sea parrots, could well do without this, as their UK numbers—and the sand eels on which they rely—are falling.
この記事は Country Life UK の April 12, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Country Life UK の April 12, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
