Plymouth Sound National Marine Park Logo Plymouth Sound National Marine Park Logo
  • Little Rays of Hope
  • Your Summer Your Sound
  • News
  • Events
  • Volunteer
Contact

Love Birds

  • Blog

Love Birds

Written by Elaine Hayes, Plymouth Sound National Marine Park Interim Chief Executive

When you are woken in the early hours of the morning by loud and persistent calls of gulls, you could be forgiven for cursing and diving under the duvet!

People who live near the coast have a love/hate relationship with gulls. On the one hand, they remind us where we live – so fabulously close to the sea – on the other, they nest in our chimneys and poo on our washing!

Herring Gull

The usual culprit is the herring gull – one of the most common sea birds in England. However, there are just 25 species of sea bird breeding in the UK, numbering about 8 million birds.

Our coastline has some of the biggest colonies of sea birds in the world, living on ledges, cliffs, shorelines, and up our estuaries. With such a wide variety of places to live, the birds that live there are very diverse and each designed for their own place.

As well as herring gulls you will see about half a dozen other species including black-headed gulls, the common gull – think small herring gull and close to the coast kittiwakes.

On the shoreline you may well see a lovely little bird called a sanderling. These are one of my favourites! Bold and lively these little birds can often be seen in winter on the shoreline – a welcome sight on a cold day. These birds travel to and from the Arctic to breed which is an amazing journey for such a small bird.

Sanderling

Out on the mudflats exposed at low tide you will see waders – avocets, egrets, redshanks, and many other species. Avocets are easy to identify because they are black and white. Usually in a flock together they have a distinctive curved bill that enables them to sweep through sediment picking up small animals to eat.

So whilst you may curse the gulls that frequent your rooftop – come out for a walk in the National Marine Park and enjoy the wonderful range of species you can see!

Redshank

Contact us





    Plymouth Sound National Marine Park Logo

    Funders

    Partners

    • News
    • Events
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Instagram icon
    • Facebook icon
    • Twitter icon

    © 2025 Plymouth Sound National Marine Park. All rights reserved.

    Site by Jory & Co

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.

    Cookie settingsSave Choices
    Privacy & Cookies Policy

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    Functional
    Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
    Performance
    Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
    Analytics
    Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
    Advertisement
    Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
    Others
    Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
    SAVE & ACCEPT