This last week I’ve been noticing a lot of small fluffy feathers all over the playing field. It’s been a pretty wet and blustery week on the whole and the usual black-headed gulls have been there in large numbers, along with several other species, but the black-heads make up by far and away the largest proportion. They are also just turning from their winter plumage and getting the feature that they are named for. (In the winter they have a mostly white head with a small black patch just henind their eye).

Best guest is the extra feathers are related, but it’s quite a carpet and when the breeze gets up it picks them up and blows them dancing around the field. From a distance it looks a little like a carpet of cherry blossom but up close it’s clear what it is.