Report Guernsey Colour Ringed Gulls

Sightings of Guernsey colour ringed Gulls can be entered here for an instant life history, or sent to pkv@cwgsy.net for a life history to be returned by e-mail to observers.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Missing - Colour-Ringed Choughs?

Recently I got a request from Glyn Young in Jersey to ask if any GuernseyGulls observers (particularly in nearby France) have seen any colour-ringed Red-billed Choughs as two of the re-introduced birds in Jersey have gone missing. Glyn sent the following request:-

"All of our choughs have been out flying free in Jersey for over two weeks now. Six of them go back to the aviary as they’ve been trained to almost every night. They are let out the following day again. Well, all except two who chose to separate from the others almost immediately. For one, a male, we picked up the first signal two days after release in the south of the Island. Two days later it had disappeared. We never had a visual sighting of this bird so don’t know the true status of it but it did seem to be moving. For the second bird, a female, we have not picked up any signal since the first release. The radio-tracking team have covered Jersey but not had any further contacts and have even used a boat to look at the coast and a low flying plane.

It is possible of course that one or both birds made the short crossing to France. We don’t see many records of birds in Brittany and Normandy so we would not necessarily hear if a strange ringed chough was seen. If you do hear of a sighting we would be very grateful for any information at all. If you could circulate the request for sightings of ringed choughs we would be extremely grateful too.

The birds we are looking for would be: Male Yellow (left leg) and 2A06 (right leg) and Female Cerise (left leg) and 2A08 (right leg). Both birds have radio transmitters.  

 This photo shows what the rings would like:
Red-billed Chough - Jersey (c) Romano da Costa

Any sightings can either be entered direct on the GuernseyGulls colour ring database  http://birdrings.digimap.gg/ or sent direct to Glyn at Glyn.Young@durrell.org

Many thanks

Paul


Sunday, April 20, 2014

Another Excellent Morning at Chouet

Saturday 19th April proved to be another very fine morning at Chouet Landfill with c 250 gull colour ring readings taken in a two and a half hour session. Although the weather was a bit dull many of the birds were close so towards the end of the session I spent a little time with the camera.























Colour ring gulls at Chouet landfill (c) PKV

Friday, April 11, 2014

The Return of Two Long-Distance Migrant LBBGs

The highlight of the last few days has been the sightings of Lesser Black-backed Gulls B3AH8 (today) and B9K5 (on 5th April). Both gulls were amongst several hundred colour ringed gulls recorded on the beach this past week. Both gulls were ringed as adults at Chouet Landfill in May 2011 (B9K5) and May 2012 (B3AH8), and both are long-distance migrants.
B9K5 has spent every winter since being ringed on Gran Canaria, The Canary Islands (although last autumn it was also seen in early October at Quarteira, Faro, Portugal on its way south). 
B3AH8 is the only Guernsey-ringed LBBG so far to be reported from Mauretania, where it was seen on 1st February 2014.
Maps of these two incredible birds' journeys are included below, as are a few photos of these special birds!
 The flights of LBBG Black 9K5
The flights of LBBG Black 3AH8

 LBBG B3AH8 Chouet landfill Beach 11 April 2014 (c) PKV
 LBBG B9K5 Chouet Landfill Beach 10 April 2014 (c) PKV

LBBG B9K5 Bocabarranco, Gran Canaria winter 2011/12 - (c) X Ramirez

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Just Like Days of Old...!

Although it's been a good start to the season for recording colour ringed gulls Chouet Landfill Beach has, so far, not quite been as exciting as in previous years. However, yesterday reminded me of the Halcyon days for the site with a large number of gulls settled for a long time, and much territorial and courtship display on the beach. The rising tide brought the gulls closer and closer. Only the dull weather prevented some really excellent photographs (by my standards). In just under three hours c 250 colour ring readings were taken.
 Chouet Landfill Beach






 LBBG Black 9K5 is now back from another winter in the Canary Islands!















 Locally Colour Ringed LBBGs - several courting
 LBBG Ringed in Portugal

Locally Colour Ringed GBBGs - all photos (c) PKV