What kind of bird is this? A seagull. What kind of gull is this?

Seagull. Fishguard Lower Bay, Wales. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem

What kind of gull is this?

Answer

Simple. If its legs are salmon pink, it's a Herring Gull. If its legs are yellow and it has a charcoal colour back, it's a Black-backed Gull. 

Now you can guess what the herring gull ought to be eating. You can guess and what kind of fish are caught or used to be caught around the aptly named Fishguard Bay. You can also guess what the people around the bay ate and what they did for a living.

Where?

This is Lower Fishguard in the far west of Wales, where Brunel built the railway line, and the British hoped to catch a sea crossing to America, before the planes we use were invented. Simple, descriptive name. Fishguard.

Fishguard has two parts, the main town with the town hall at the hilltop, where you drive in from London, and the Lower Bay down by the seafront with the tiny fishermen's cottages.

What else will you see? Boats.

You have no need to go looking for the gulls. They will come looking for you.

Why? Because visitors bring food or buy food. Visitors sit on the bench to eat or drink. When the bird hovers about watching you eat, you've eventually eaten enough and, if you have any leftover you 'generously', you think, give some to the bird.

Day after day, the seagulls know they get food by the bench.

This picture tells you everything about Fishguard. The hills are green. Remember the best-selling Welsh book, How Green Was My Valley. You can walk paths along the clifftop for a view out over the sea. 

More information from:

BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05jmz0q?intc_type=singletheme&intc_location=radio4&intc_campaign=radio4infour&intc_linkname=audioclip_seagull_contentcard10 (BBC Radio 4 programme on why seagulls came to British cities post smog when burning fires was banned after thousands died from pollution.)

RSPB

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-and-wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/h/herringgull/

TRAVEL

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/what-to-see-in-wales.html (Checklist of cities and sites connected with famous people such as Dylan Thomas and Nelson.)

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. 

Always entertaining and informative.

I have more posts on Wales, learning Welsh, Britain, America, Russia, Italy, Singapore and more. Please bookmark, follow and share links to your favourite posts. Tomorrow you will be able to see my other website LuxuryTravelforless.co.uk