At around 14:25 today i watched what I’m certain was a great skua kill a slightly larger gull species at Langland Bay. The two birds were fighting at the water surface with the skua on top – i didn’t really see anything other than the wings of the bird below when it managed to flap them…it appeared to be an immature gull, possibly herring going on the mix of pale grey and brown feathers, it also appeared to be slightly larger than the skua.

The skua basically pushed and held the gull repeatedly under water while pecking at its head and neck. This went on for about fifteen minutes before the gull slowly stopped struggling, presumably dead….at this point the birds were virtually washed ashore…the skua then seemed to tow the gull carcass out through the surf some thirty metres maybe where it started to peck at the corpse in calmer water. It was clearly too large to lift and carry in flight. I had to leave at this point.

Skua was heavily built, dark brown all over except for very clear white/pale “triangular arcs” across the primaries – when swimming it was “chunky” with no obvious tail projections.

Fascinating stuff!