The Little Gull is the smallest of all gulls and in flight looks more like a marsh tern. Adult summer birds are particularly handsome with their black hood. They breed on fresh water marshes in eastern Europe and Russia and are uncommon winter visitors although they do gather in numbers at a few favoured spots. On the east coast of Scotland a favoured spot is near Arbroath. The birds in these photographs are adults just beginning to moult into winter plumage so the black hood is looking scruffy. Images taken at Balcomie, Fife Ness.