Guest blogger: Lindsay Wilson, Land's End Information Assistant
Well, what a difference a couple of weeks make. Our adorable little fluffy great black-backed gulls, who we've taken to calling "our little darlings", are not so little any more. A herring gull landed beside one of the chicks the other day and the chick was bigger! I felt like a proud parent seeing their wee baby looking rather grown up. They're not even fluffy any more, but now have all of their beautiful flight feathers.
They're also becoming even more entertaining - learning and practicing flying, jumping and flapping terrifyingly close to the edge of their rock. Tuesday this week was the most exciting day of all, with one of the young gulls making a short flight from one part of the nesting rock to the other. Our hearts are in our mouths as we watch them get ready for the biggest step in their young lives - fledging.
Both parents are still attentive in looking after the chicks and we have to say that they've done a fantastic job. Most years they've only managed to fledge one chick, but with two very healthy looking youngsters this has been an outstanding year for the pair.
Our gulls aren't the only young birds that we're seeing here at Land's End. There are flocks of young starlings, fledgling shags which look a bit paler and scruffier than their parents, and a young kestrel has even been seen trying out his hunting skills right in front of the hut!
Despite the weather being a little misty over the last couple weeks, when the mist lifts we've been rewarded with an increasing variety of animals in the sea - more basking sharks, with a couple coming right into the bay so that their massive, white mouths could be seen below the water surface, and small groups of porpoise and Risso's dolphin were even spotted one day much to the excitement of everyone who was there. And perhaps the most unusual looking visitor, an ocean sunfish was observed floating near the surface. These bizarre looking fish come to our waters in the summer time to feed on jellyfish.
So come along to Land's End. There's all kinds of weird and wonderful wildlife - sometimes closer than you'd think!