The beach this morning was littered with large amounts of kelp washed up by the rough weather over the last four days.
The local kelp beds are close to the shore, just on the rocky headland and round the seaward side of St Clair Salt Water Pool. Some of the kelp is large, the holdfast here measuring about 30cms. (The holdfast is the 'root system' for these brown algae; usually they can hang onto rocky strata through all sorts of storms unless the individual plant is old.)
The washed-up kelp has attracted several southern black-backed gulls, scavenging for shrimps and other fauna that make the kelp their home. This species is virtually indistinguishable from the northern hemisphere, lesser black-backed gull.
A first-year immature makes a nuisance of itself with its parent.
But the adult doesn't want to know. We watched the performance for a full ten minutes.
Despite the full head down begging posture of the immature gull. Clearly the adult thought the fledgling should be able to feed itself by now. Chicks are usually fed by both parents, who regurgitate food on demand. So I suppose it's not surprising to find an older chick trying its luck.
A nearby adult squawks noisily. I'm not sure where the breeding colony is, possibly on White Island, about 2kms out to sea.
