The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Tuesday evening at about 11pm I was out in the garden looking for bats and saw a large pale bird flying fairly high; I did wonder for a moment that it might be a barn owl, but the loud gull-like squawk made me think differently! Has anyone got any ideas about this behaviour, are night flying gulls common?

Libby.

Hi Libby,

Night flying gulls aren't that uncommon, especially near the coast, but Barn Owls also emit a loud shriek.

Trev

There is a nocturnal-feeder species of gull, endemic to the Galapagos islands called the Swallow-Tailed Gull.

http://www.greglasley.net/swallowgull.html for pics

Trev, thanks for that, I'm sure it was a gull because it was more of a squawk than a shriek!

Katherine, I suppose I could say that it was a Swallow-tailed gull and see how long it takes for all the really serious birders to get their replies in!!

Libby.

Hi Libby

Last year I attended a talk by some researchers from Central Science Laboratory who were using short-range radar to look at bird movements at night in relation to bird-strike risk near airports. I forget all the detail but they confirmed what a lot of birders strongly suspected/knew already, that there is a lot of bird traffic in and out of roosts at night.

Where I do my WEBS count, there are still significant numbers of gulls arriving at the Pit when light levels are falling sharply.

Nick