Rainbow over Chouet

A very enjoyable hour at Chouet this morning was capped off with the appearance of a a beautiful rainbow over the gull flock roosting on the beach. Amongst the 70 of my colour ringed Lesser Black-backed Gulls recorded on the beach were a 1st summer bird (Black 4.T0) and a  3rd summer bird (White 6.Z7). This latter gull was ringed in one of the Sark colonies in July 2008. It was recorded in Vendée, France in its 1st summer (Michel Fouquet), and then in September 2009 it was recorded in Asturias, Spain (Javier Gil Vaquero). Last year I saw it just once at Chouet, Guernsey on 22 July 2010. This bird may well make its first breeding attempt next summer - probably back in its natal colony on Sark.

As yesterday there were a couple of juvenile Herring Gulls and one juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull on the beach too. Earlier this week I checked one more small colony (c 10 pairs) of Lesser Black-backed Gulls on Lihou, but these birds too have failed in their breeding attempt this year. This is the third successive failure of this tiny colony.