Tour Scotland Travel Video Seagull Preening Harbour St Andrews Fife



Tour Scotland travel video Blog of of a seagull preening by the harbour on ancestry visit to the coast at St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. The use of the word preen to mean the tidying of a bird's feathers dates from Late Middle English. It appears to be a variant of the word prune; one now obsolete definition of prune meant " anoint ", based on the Latin ungere, which had the same meaning. This usage was combined with the Scottish and northern English dialect preen meaning " pierce " or " pin ", due to the " pricking " action of the bird's beak during preening. Spiralling above a fishing boat or squabbling at a harbour, These gulls are the quintessential gray and white, pink legged seagull. They're the most familiar gulls of the North Sea. Herring Gulls prey on marine invertebrates, fish, insects, smaller seabirds, and even on adults, young, and eggs of other gulls. Along rocky shores, they take mussels, crabs, sea urchins, and crayfish.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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