TWO seagull chicks took their first tentative steps under the watchful eyes of their parents.

In the basking sun the pair of tiny herring gulls strolled their way across the roof of a house in Queens Park, Brighton, with their parents never far away.

They were spotted by Argus photographer Simon Dack as they paraded up and down his roof on Tuesday.

Mr Dack said: “They start thumping around on my roof at about four in the morning.

“The other day we went outside and we were surprised to see there were these two chicks and their parents on the roof.

“The parents spent all day guarding them and fending off other seagulls.”

He added that the gulls nest on the roofs over neighbouring houses and they come back to the same spots every year.

Herring gulls can grow up to 26 inches long and are one of the most common gulls in Europe, being found all along the coastlines of northern, western and central Europe as well as Scandinavia.

They are long lived, with the oldest recorded gull being 49 years old.