Just back from a family holiday in Menorca, where I managed to snatch a few moments of wildlife watching while our children play on the beach. Three-year-old George is quite taken with one regular sighting, Audouin's gull - or as he christens it, "odd ones gull".
When I first visited the Balearics, almost 20 years ago, Audouin's gull was a really rare bird - probably the rarest gull in the world. Since then it has rocketed in numbers, and can be seen all over the western Mediterranean.
With its pearl-grey back, inky-black wingtips and blood-red bill, this really is a handsome bird - and well worth seeking out if you're on holiday in these parts. I've even started checking flocks of gulls back home - two or three "odd ones" have wandered north in the past few years and been seen at places like Dungeness.
Stephen Moss is a writer and TV producer based at the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol
