Black-headed gulls: synchrony

Better in large ("L").

I visited Eagle Pond this afternoon and there were some excellent photo opportunities because there were 3 Eastern European chaps (speaking something Slavic, but I'm not quite sure what specifically) sitting on a bench and plying the birds with bread. (Grrr - the bread bit is irritating...).
They had drawn quite a crowd: the black-headed gulls were squabbling over the food (and catching it in the air when it was lofted up), the mallards were quick to barge their way in and grab what they could, the moorhens would scavenge stray bits from the edge and peg it off at quite a lick (often with gulls in pursuit), and the coots and pigeons were confidently standing very close to the men's feet.
The Egyptian goose family were also involved: the fledglings were mostly too shy to get too close to the bench, but grew in confidence with time. The parents were the first to eat bread from one of the men's hands (he just had it lolling off the side of the bench so they wouldn't feel watched), and the fledglings would edge up carefully before (often) abandoning their attempts and scurrying off (scared) or sometimes even grabbing a little bit before rushing off. They're becoming more brave! I pretended that I had bread in my hand, and a couple of them came very close to me (looking very suspicious). They're still very gullible...

It was fun to watch, and I enjoyed seeing all the birds in such close proximity and bickering amusingly over the bread, and it was fun photographing the gulls in flight and other birds on foot...
*Sigh* If only people would feed them something else...