ImagesBrighton pictures of the week 7-11-2005

IMAGESBRIGHTON photography by david gray
	S E A G U L L S
	P I C T U R E S O F T H E W E E K 7 - 1 1 - 2 0 0 5

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This week's picture set takes a look at seagulls. Depending upon your point of view (mainly if they have attacked you or not), these coastal birds are either our feathered friends or a bleeding menace. Certainly, over recent years, seagulls have changed markedly in their character and behaviour. They used to be medium-sized birds that lived on cliffs and ate fish. Nowadays they are more likely to be great big aggressive urbanites that live off discarded fast food and crap on your car (or head). It may astonish the terrorised residents of coastal towns, but the herring gull (its proper name, or Larus Argentatus in the Latin) is a protected species and cannot be shot, run over or stamped on, at least when anyone is looking. One group of people, however, are happy to be associated with these awful avians. Brighton & Hove Albion football fans, who call their team "The Seagulls", have also themselves been threatened with extinction. The Brighton club has been homeless for eight years, but are now celebrating the planning permission just granted for their new stadium at Falmer. Who knows - in a few years they could be squawking all the way to Wembley.

Stuffed seagull in Brighton's Booth Bird Museum in March 2004 (image 2493-103)

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