Showing Tag: ""herring gulls"" (Show all posts)

From the rooftop

Posted by Ken Edwards on Tuesday, December 10, 2013, In : Hastings 
The view from the roof of our house - chiefly of other roofs in Hastings Old Town - is wonderful, especially on a very balmy, watery-sunny December day. But there's something illicit about it. I'm not supposed to be here. It's not very comfortable. I have just crawled out of the Velux window into the lee of the chimney stack and I have to twist my ankles into strange positions to wedge myself in the runnel below the chimney while simultaneously leaning against and trying not to dislodge a ban...
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Mating season update (2)

Posted by Ken Edwards on Monday, June 7, 2010, In : Hastings 
The breeding season for Hastings' rooftop herring gulls is well under way, with chicks hatching all over the place. On our rooftop, the roof valley site has once again acquired considerable nesting debris but there is no sign of actual nesting here. However, on the top chimney at least one chick has hatched. You can see it below, just to the right of the middle chimney pot, while its parents stand guard. I would estimate it's a week or so old.



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Mating season update

Posted by Ken Edwards on Sunday, May 2, 2010, In : Hastings 
Mayday in Hastings. This is Jack in the Green weekend, when ancient rituals are enacted once more: Jack is taken from his hiding place in the Fishermen's Museum, and, accompanied by bogies and sweeps, as well as giants and green-painted entities of all shapes, escorted through the Old Town and up to Hastings Castle, where he is ritually slaughtered, thus ushering in spring. Alternatively, it's yet another excuse to dress up and drink a great deal....

Meanwhile, high on the rooftops, the mating...
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Mating season

Posted by Ken Edwards on Monday, March 15, 2010, In : Hastings 
A wonderful, sunny spring morning - so I decided to check the seagull habitat on our roof before the mating season begins in earnest next month. 

Herring gulls (on the endangered list in the UK) nest in profusion on the rooftops of Hastings Old Town, and our house does not escape. Each year we usually have two resident pairs: one nesting between the chimney pots of the bigger, higher chimney, and the other in the roof valley in the lee of the rear chimney. It's this latter that cause the probl...
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Ken Edwards This blog is written by Ken Edwards, co-founder and editor/publisher of Reality Street, and it's mainly about the press. Ken's personal blog can now be found at http://www.kenedwardsonline.co.uk