National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales preserves and celebrates the sound and moving image heritage of Wales, making it accessible to a wide range of users for enjoyment and learning. Its film collection reflects every aspect of the nation’s social, cultural and working life across the 20th century, giving a fascinating insight into Welsh filmmaking, both amateur and professional.
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Black-headed gulls
It can be an exhausting effort to get oneself hatched, as the new chick in the colony seems to demonstrate.
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Overview
Life in a wetland colony of Black-headed gulls at nesting/hatching time. This film has no soundtrack but it is easy to imagine the noise that is going on, the birds’ red beaks opening and closing, their Latin name translating as ‘laughing gull’. As the excellent shots show, these gulls, despite their common name, are brown-headed, at least during the breeding season. In winter their heads are white, with smudges of brown on each side.
The greenish/speckled eggs of the black-headed gull are still collected and sold, under strict licence, mainly in particular areas of Hampshire, North Yorkshire and Co. Durham. Once cooked, they are regarded as a great delicacy. The location of the gulls in this film is unknown at present. They are found on coastal and inland wetlands across Britain and Ireland, the largest groups clustered around the Thames Estuary, coastal East Anglia and the urban areas of northern England, central Scotland and south Wales.
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