Urban Nature Pictures 7/7

[urbpan]

Domestic geese, Caerphilly Wales.



Caerphilly Castle is the largest castle in Wales, and is in fact bigger than all the castles in Britain except for that one where the queen sometimes lives in Windsor. This castle is plunked down smack dab in the middle of Caerphilly, a town of 30,000 people and suburb of Cardiff, the capitol of Wales.









Moat monsters included domestic and Canada geese, mallards, some exotic ducks I couldn't identify or photograph well, and a moorhen.




Here's my brother peeking in the doors while trolls play under the bridge.


Remember being a carefree kid and dangling from a 700 year old castle's bridge over the moat?
Those were the days.


The last time we saw my brother he was disappearing into the castle.
About a half hour later someone who looks like him but couldn't stop giggling and smiling came out.
He likes castles.

Comments

[temeres.livejournal.com]

Is that a couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls I espy hiding behind the goosies?

I applaud your brother. Castles rock.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I didn't try to id the gulls while I was there, so I'll defer to you. I saw laughing gulls and herring gulls for sure, but there were definitely a couple other species too.

[temeres.livejournal.com]

I doubt if you saw any Laughing Gulls (Larus atricila) because they're all on the other side of the Atlantic:) I presume you mean Black-headed Gulls (L ridibundus).

Mind you, the Germans call the Black-headed a Lachenmoewe which translates as ... laughing gull.

Which is arguably far more sensible, since Black-headed Gulls never have black heads.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Well, I was never a great birder and my skills have clearly atrophied. Yes, the gulls I took to be laughing gulls had sooty-brown heads.

[cowgrrl.livejournal.com]

Lovely pics. I haven't been to Caerphilly yet (it's on my list). Liked that third one especially - so much to look at in one pic!