The gulleries: a fine line between love and hate

Each year around this time I blow the dust off volume XI of Bannerman and Lodge's 'The Birds of the British Isles'. Though the same age as myself, one chapter still holds good to this day, a wonderfully detailed but succinct account by Niko Tinbergen, 'An introduction to the behaviour and displays of British gulls'.

What gets me every time I revisit is the similarity between greeting ceremonies and threat postures- the fine line between aggression and bonding takes some crossing it seems. A slower repeated ritualisation of the threat display changing into an appeasement position becomes the bonding gesture. Prospective partners have to meet time and time again to allow the female to slowly overcome any 'flight' response, and at the same time ensure the male loses his initial aggressiveness. No lovey-dovey long term monogamous greeting and straight down to nesting as we've been fed over the years by the TV documentaries, even though some pairs bond for life they still have to renew their vows, carefully. Conflict, dumping, scrapping, sulking; if I ever made a show about it, I'd probably have to call it something like 'Medway Shore'.

The gradual warming over the past few days has seen more birds about in the Black-head Gull colonies, and the appearance of more nesting areas in use, especially over the high tide. What is clear is that during the low tide a good number of prospective pairs are sitting close-by, around and about the saltings. As the tide covers their mudflats, a few remain on what is now a watery 'pre-breeding territory', but others, those whose bonds are growing stronger, chance their luck within the gulleries for a couple of hours.

Long-standing pairs are usually first back on territory, but still have to allow their personal space to shrink, as they start to tolerate neighbours. Gaps start to fill.

Why do I now have images of a school disco filling up for my 'Medway Shore' docu-drama? Perhaps because a lot are hanging around the edges, shuffling their feet, too embarrassed to make their  move. Loafing areas close to shore are still in use. These birds just sit there. Wimps. A personal theory is being shot down at the moment; I had wondered whether these birds would be mainly still in 'winter plumage', but clearly not the case. Probably just young love. Things are warming up, they'll soon get all the bug- or as 'Handbook of the Birds of the World' puts it, contagious coitus.

Sharp's Green car park- a.k.a. Makeout Point