buskin

She traced her fingers over the sock and buskin masks—one sad, tragic face and one happy, comedic one—waiting for the door to open.

“They’re not like other gulls,” says Paul Buskin, an ornithologist who leads the community group Kittiwakes upon the Tyne.

“It’s a world first that they live inland, and North Shields is where the story began. These kittiwakes are part of the local heritage,” says Buskin.

Landlords put up the deterrents in an attempt to stop the birds damaging the brickwork, but Buskin says he’s never seen kittiwakes do any harm.

“In that case, a lot of people will see them in pain. They don’t get rescued straight away,” Buskin says.