Shouting from the roof tops, lamp posts, car parks........

Richard Clarke's fine study of the breeding gulls in Gwent published in the 2007 Gwent Bird Report traces the extent these birds have colonised the urban heartlands of Newport and the valleys. A quiet late Sunday afternoon around the industrial estates and retail parks of the grey infrastructure was enough to convince any doubter of their adaptability and dominance of asbestos and asphalt.

Uskside buildings is a well known site for rooftop breeding Larus of both fuscus and argentatus. Birds called, preened, launched themselves into short wheeling flights and collected rooftop vegetation, while others sat on an early brood. One bird with a colour ring (Blue JE3?) drifted in and out of vision behind a building - its origin of marking likely to be a Gloucester landfill site. Elsewhere an opportunist argentatus pillaged a retail park bin of its KFC packaging finding sustenance in a few discarded barbecue sauce covered chips.