College rocks, Aberystwyth, high tide on Monday: a large black-and-white
object floating near the wall looks like a dead Oystercatcher. Further over,
nearer the castle, a Black-headed Gull is picking at the corpse of a small
bird in the water. In the other direction, on rocks near the pier, a young
Herring Gull finds a small bird's leg in the water, then loses and retrieves
it several times. The other two corpses appear to have both legs, so this
leg must come from a third corpse.
Two questions which I would like to ask my more knowledgeable friends:
(1) What were the two gulls eating? Starlings would seem to be the obvious
guess, but can anyone identify the corpses positively?
(2) Why prefer the meagre pickings on the small birds, when there was
oystercatcher on the menu?
I apologise for the gory details, but the problem intrigues me.
Laurie Wright