On 14th March 1973, a then post-graduate geography student, Rob Hume, noticed a pale gull amongst a large flock of Common Gulls Larus canus resting on the beach at Blackpill, Swansea, West Glamorgan. To his eternal credit, he followed up the bird, took detailed notes, and identified it as Britain's first Ring-billed Gull L. delawarensis, an American species whose occurrence here had long been expec
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