From an environmental perspective, gulls, like this Ringed Bill, are valuable members of the community. They like live fish for sure, but they’ll also clean up the remnants of fish that have long since expired. We need these natural cleaners in the world…they help to keep things in good shape all in all.
But my appreciation for gulls is more from a photographers perspective. Now you may not always find a lot of them around, but more often than not, they’ll be flying around when other birds are hard to come by. And that makes them one of my best training partners.
For every decent eagle photo I get, I’ve probably shot a hundred gulls images…some good, many misses…but the practice helps when the rarer birds come around. You can test camera settings, and bird in flight shooting techniques to your hearts content, while the gulls just keep flying by in sweeping circles or zigzag patterns that will keep you on your toes.
This shot (and test) was taken the Olympus EM1 MarkII camera and the new 2x extender on the Zuiko 40-150 2.8 Pro lens. 2x extenders can get a bit of a rap for image quality issues, but not this one. It’s a great set up for birds in flight, and these old gulls are great to have around!