Josefine and Gulliver already looked very different from eachother, Gulliver is much larger and has a bigger beak for example, but their winter plumage makes them even more distinct.
Gulliver has few thin brown stripes on his face, but Josefine's head is filled with them. Their head pattern during winter seems to be the same (or similar) each year as well, from what I can tell based on old pictures.
Close-up of Josefine's eye.
]]>Gulliver and his partner Josefine are still visiting the balcony daily, but both are meanwhile molted into complete winter plumage.
In a way it's easy to tell Gulliver apart from the other neighborhood gulls, thanks to his attitude and the fact that he rarely leaves the side of Josefine. But when in doubt, we check the iris. The black specks on the yellow eyes form a unique pattern, almost like a biological "barcode". And during winter season the pattern formed by the stripes on their head is another way to tell apart individuals.
]]>For a while now, two herring gulls have been "living" on our rooftop balcony. Before that they lived on a chimney across the street. We called the male Gulliver, and the female Josefine. Josefine has a color ring around her leg, which is registered in an online database where we can see past observations of her.
She received her ring in January of 2016 as an adult, 5 years or older. This means she hatched in or before 2011, and at least 13 years old at the time of writing. It's not possible to age gulls once they reach adulthood, so she could be anything from 13 to 30 years or older (the oldest herring gull recorded is 49 years old).
Ever since she received her ring, she's been consistently observed in the parks around our area, and several times right down the street from us. There are a few exceptions. Like the rest of our herring gull flock she breeds outside the city center, and she has occasionally been observed at other gull hotspots.
I've seen her on the neighbor's chimney since at least February 2023, when I first started taking pictures of the gulls in our street, and she's been frequenting our balcony since February 2024. The gulls where already on the chimney's before February 2023 (that's just when I started following along with them), and most of them around here seem to return to their exact same spot every day, so I think it'sw safe to say she's been living on these roofs for a long time.
Ever since she first appeared in my pictures, she's been together with the same gull, who we called Gulliver. He's the one who first made the move from the chimney to the balcony, and the one who caused us to really start following along with the comings and goings of the flock.
Gulliver and Josefine are clearly a couple, doing everything toghether. When he's out looking for food, she patiently waits for him on top of our chimney, and while she's gone he patrols the balcony wall, and when they spot eachother in the distance they call out to eachother with excitement, loudly. Gulliver seems to be very protective over Josefine, chasing other gulls away from her and also guarding her while she's eating.
I don't have any pictures of JMT80 (or Jean-Marie, as we call him) uploaded yet, but he's one of the few gulls who's occasionally allowed to visit the roof while Gulliver & Josefine are there. He received his ring in 2022 as a 5+, so he's at least in his 7th year currently, and breeds on the same island as Gulliver & Josefine.
He's really not afraid of a battle, and I think one of the reasons they tolerate him on "their" roof is because they don't have a choice.
In her observations, some of the other neighborhood gulls their numbers have been mentioned as well, and vice versa.
One of them is JLN44, aka Julien, who's at least 9. He was here the first time Gulliver was on the roof. He has visited a handful of times together with Gulliver & Josefine since then, and he occasionally gets observed in the nearby park as well.
Amongst the observations of her, one of them was at the prison not far away from here. It's a popular spot for gulls since there's food to be had in the park next to it, but I'd like to believe she had to spend the night in jail for being a bad gull 🤭
]]>Gulliver always keeping an eye on us.
]]>Josefine looking at us from the side of the roof.
]]>Gulliver and Josefine are a couple of, assumibly rather old, herring gulls that live on the roodtops in our street.
The ledge of our balcony is one of their favorite hangout spots, along with the chimney of the building across the street. We've been observing and following along with them for quite a while, and they've been enjoying watching us just as much.
I had seen the herring gulls in Oslo before, but never paid much attention to them or realized how much personality they actually had until I moved to an apartment where we got a front-row seat to the comings and goings of the neighborhood gulls.
We live close to a small park and not far away from a river, so there are quite a bit of gulls hanging out in our neighborhood, and a lot of them are repeat daily visitors. When they're not hunting or foraging for food, they relax on the chimneys and roofs in the area. And as it turns out, most of them have their own spot, to which they return every single day at sunrise.
Two of those gulls are Gulliver and Josefine. They were living on the chimney across the street until October 2023, when Gulliver decided to check out our balcony while I was photographing a crow visitor. He liked what he saw, and has since then traded the neighbor's chimney for the ledge of our balcony, from where he has a view on the street, the sky, and our apartment.
Josefine was a lot more skeptical at first and it took him some convincing, but during early spring she "moved in" with him on our balcony ledge.
I've been following their life quite closely since his first he first stopped by, and they inspired me to start this blog, since I wanted to document their interesting behaviors, intelligence, beautiful dynamics, and rich personalities somewhere.
Even though Josefine started visiting much later than Gulliver, we do know more about her. She has a color ring around her leg, which lets us register and read observations of her.
She received the ring in January of 2016, as an adult in her 5th calendar year or higher. It's not possible to tell the age of gulls once they've reached adulthood, so "at least 5 years" is as precise as the data gets. This makes her at least 13 years old, but we suspect she and Gulliver are both older than that.
We also know where she's been over the years, and she has a clear preference: she's been consistently observed in our area, with a few exceptions. For example, she and Gulliver breed outside the city center.
Gulliver has been visiting us the longest, but we have no info about his age or which other places he visits, as he's not ringed. But we do know he spends a significant amount of time on our roof and two additional ones in our street.
He's a quite large and strong gull, good at defending his rooftops, a loving partner to Josefine, and... an eager people-watcher.
We often notice him standing on top of our windows, looking inwards into our apartment while making talking noises to Josefine. When he's on the balcony he follows along with what happens inside, and each morning he greets us with the loudest concert as soon as he notices we're awake.
Gulliver is a very confident and bossy gull (aren't they all though), that rarely tolerates other gulls on his roof. Josefine is the only exception, she's not only tolerated, she's highly encouraged by him to hang out together.
And they really do spend a lot of time with one another. They're typically sitting together, quietly (and occaisionally very loudly) talking to eachother. When Gulliver arrives on the balcony before her, he patiently waits for her, shouting out for her as soon as he notices her in the distance.
While eating they stand guard for eachother, and if we give Gulliver food while Josefine is not around, he calls out for her and leaves a (small) portion for her. Gulliver is definitely a tough one, who has seemed quite successful at protecting his long-term partner so far. The same can be said for Josefine, who fiercly chases away any other gulls showing interest in "their" roofs.
I honestly didn't fully realize that gulls were this social with eachother until I started following these two. They talk to eachother, they arrive together at sunrise and leave together at sunset, gather food for eachother, have their own territories even in the city, have certain other gulls they allow near, and some they passionately chase off.
I take a lot of pictures of Gulliver & Josefine, and spend a lot of time watching them, so as soon as I decided to create a place to share my photography, I knew I had to dedicate a section to them.
Besides sharing their portraits, I'm also hoping to document their behavior and interactions, and share little updates about what they're up to. We will be moving out of our apartment at some point within the next years as well, so more than anything I want to save some memories of our lovely friends.
All of my Gulliver and Josefine related blog posts and photos can be explored in my Gulliver & Josefine collection.
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Gulliver stopping by on the balcony for his daily visit. They've been incredibly talkative this summer, him and Josefine are shouting at each other all the time.
]]>Josefine the herring gull. Typically Gulliver protects her while she's eating, but she can stand her ground too when needed and has chased plenty of gulls out of her territory.
]]>Josefine is a herring gull that's been spending time in our part of town for at least 9 years, and often visits our balcony together with her partner.
]]>Josefine is a herring gull that's been spending time in our part of town for at least 9 years, and often visits our balcony together with her partner.
]]>Gulliver in the evening light. He's a herring gull that often visits our balcony in the center of Oslo.
]]>Gulliver, our loyal balcony friend, photographed in the first snow of the 2023-2024 winter season.
While he and his partner have been living on the chimneys in our street for years, our balcony only become their favorite hangout spot this winter. In fact, the day I took this picture was the first time he hung out at our balcony.
Gulliver, our loyal balcony friend, photographed in the first snow of the 2023-2024 winter season.
While he and his partner have been living on the chimneys in our street for years, our balcony only become their favorite hangout spot this winter. In fact, the day I took this picture was the first time he hung out at our balcony.
]]>Gulliver, our loyal balcony friend, photographed in the first snow of the 2023-2024 winter season.
While he and his partner have been living on the chimneys in our street for years, our balcony only become their favorite hangout spot this winter. In fact, the day I took this picture was the first time he hung out at our balcony.
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