03/10/2009

Feather Report: Birdwatching in Venice

Derwent May, The Times

Wonderful yellow-legged gulls lead you into this sublime city on their wooden posts like a grand heraldic reception.

Birdwatchers who go to Venice see a striking sight as they take the motor boat from the airport to San Marco. On top of all of the tall wooden posts that mark the route across the water, there sits a large white gull. It looks at first like a herring gull, but it is different in one notable respect. It has yellow, not pink, legs. And it is called the yellow-legged gull.

Until quite recently it was considered to be just a subspecies of the herring gull. But now it has its own name and is recognised as a species in its own right.

It is a Mediterranean bird, but not unknown in this country. More of these gulls are spreading up the Atlantic coast and visiting Britain, especially in autumn, as they disperse after breeding. There are even one or two records of yellow-legged gulls nesting in this country.

It is of course the legs that mark them out, but they are slightly different from our familar herring gulls in one or two other ways. Herring gulls in autumn have a certain amount of mottling about the head, whereas the yellow-legged gulls have noticeably white heads. They also have a just-detectable red ring around the eye. The yellow-legged gull's call is also more like that of the lesser black-backed gull - a deep, nasal laugh. This is the sound that rings out over Venice.

So yellow-legged gulls are not too hard to spot. But there are two slight further hazards. Some of the herring gulls that visit us from Finland in the winter have pale yellow legs, and might be mistaken for yellow-legged gulls. Readers may also have noticed occasional mentions on the birding websites of Caspian gulls. This is a new name for gulls from the Black and Caspian seas that sometimes reach the British Isles. They, too, have yellow legs, and are probably a subspecies of the yellow-legged gull, though there is much debate about this. They can sometimes be distinguished by their soft grey mantle and rather dark-eyed, gentle expression.

There is no doubt, though, about the wonderful yellow-legged gulls of Venice. They lead one into the sublime city on their wooden posts like a grand heraldic reception.