A large Black-back juvenile `hiding' in a broken plastic hamper washed up on the beach, in mid-July.  During the breeding season adult Black-backs can be very aggressive in defense of both eggs and young, and will swoop down on hapless passers-by - both horses and persons - and with their big feet outspread, deliver a solid wallop to the head of the `intruder'.  Such wallops and whacks can be very uncomfortable (and nerve-wracking when they come `out- of-the-blue'...).  Great Black-backed Gulls are the largest gulls in the world.

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