Birdwatch: Arctic Skuas are the gulls of the dark side

Also called ‘parasitic jaeger’, these birds have the habit of snatching other seabirds’ food

At first, I thought the quartet flying towards me were gulls – but something about them rang warning bells. “Arctic skuas,” I called out instinctively, even before I realised I’d identified these unfamiliar birds.

Slender-winged, buoyant, yet utterly determined, they flew strongly into the wind, on their long journey north from the South Atlantic to the Arctic tundra.

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