Chouet with Tim and The Last Garden Gull Catch of Summer

A really enjoyable, action-packed weekend saw me spend half an hour at Chouet with Tim Earl on Saturday morning. Tim had already recorded a good number of my cr Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls by the time I arrived. On Sunday morning, Chris Mourant and Phil Alexander joined me for two controlled catches of gulls in the garden. Conscious that we wanted to finish handling any gulls  caught before the day warmed up too much we took a couple of small catches - finishing the 2011 summer season with 25 more Herring Gulls. And then...finally...on Sunday afternoon, Catherine, Sophie and I took our little boat to count fledged (or near fledged) Herring Gulls along the stretch of coast from the Town Harbour to St Martin's Point - perhaps a mile or so. We counted 12 very large chicks, with three more in the gull flock in Fermain Bay. All in all - a delightful weekend!



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.



1st Summer LBBG Back in Guernsey & Two Adult Yellow-legged Gulls at Chouet

It proved to be an eventful hour before work at Chouet today, with a very good showing of Lesser Black-backed Gulls - including c60 of my colour ringed birds. The most exciting of these was Black 4.T0, which was ringed as a chick on Burhou, Alderney on 09 July 2010. As commented before on this blog relatively few "Guernsey" LBBGs return to the Bailiwick in their first summer. It is always exciting to see them when they do!

Other interest was provided by two adult Yellow-legged Gulls - one of which was metal-ringed (but I could not read the address or the code). One final highlight from yesterday was a single juvenile Mediterranean Gull at Rousse, seen while Catherine was swimming.



Mystery Lesser Black-backed Gull at Chouet, Guernsey

On what seemed like an exceptionally quiet Monday morning at Chouet today, the main surprise was an adult metal-ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull from a scheme unknown to me. Unfortunately the gull was just a bit distant, and it never showed the full ring, but the address was a puzzle to me with the letters “…CRETA…” in the top line and “….ECA” at the bottom of the 2nd line. The ring number ended 027829 (possibly the “0” was a “D”). I realise that it is very unlikely that we can trace such an incomplete code…but if anyone has any idea of which ringing scheme this could be I’d be very interested to know! I see plenty of metal rings that I cannot read the full codes on…but usually I can at least work out the scheme…but not with this LBBG!

The other notable event today was my first sighting at Chouet this summer of a fully fledged juvenile Herring Gull. 

Mystery Metal-ringed LBBG - PKV 

First Fledged Juvenile Herring Gull of the year at Chouet - PKV

Looking like a poor season for Lesser Black-backed Gull productivity

The major disappointment of the weekend was the visit on Saturday to my second-most important colony for Lesser Black-backed Gulls. From the 150 or so pairs of gulls Catherine and I could only find six chicks to colour ring! The gulls were all on full clutches of eggs in late May, so I had hoped that we might repeat last year's success in this colony with 60+ chicks ringed. I do not know what the problem is, but I have seen a similar situation this summer in several very small LBBG colonies. I suspect that the few days of torrential rain that we had in early summer came at just the wrong time for these gulls, when the majority of chicks would have been very small. I can but hope, at this stage, that Burhou, Alderney, which is the Channel Islands' most important breeding site for Lesser Black-backed Gull (1,000+ pairs) will fare better. The birds in this colony tend to nest up to two weeks later than here in Guernsey, Herm and Sark...so it might just be possible that they have been successful. It will be another couple of weeks before I visit to find out!

Very early this morning Chris Mourant, Phil Alexander and I took a very small controlled catch of 16 Herring Gulls in the garden. These birds included one of Jamie Hooper's colour ringed birds ringed as a chick at Pleinmont Cliffs in 2002.



Another Successful early Morning at Chouet

I spent a very enjoyable hour before work yesterday at Chouet. I didn't record anything unusual, but it was very peaceful watching the gulls bathing and resting on the beach after feeding in the landfill. With the tide high the birds were also nice and close.



Alderney Colour Ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull seen again in The Netherlands

I received very exciting news today from Herman Bouman of Lesser Black-backed Gull Black 0.S7 being seen in Barneveld, Gelderland, The Netherlands on 28 June 2011. This bird was ringed as a chick on Burhou, Alderney on 10 July 2009, and was seen on 23 September 2010 at Westkepelle, Zeeland, The Netherlands by Theo Muusse. Over the intervening winter (14/11/10) it was seen at Pinto Landfill, Madrid, Spain by Miguel Juan. This is my only Lesser Black-backed Gull chick to date to be reported from The Netherlands, and it is very interesting that this bird appears to be faithful to The Netherlands in summer - raising the possibility that it will recruit into one of the Dutch colonies when it reaches breeding age in 2013 or 2014. I only hope the bird continues to survive, be seen and be reported so that we may be able to confirm this suspicion!

LBBG Black 0.S7 Westkapelle, The Netherlands - 23/09/10 (c) Theo Muusse

LBBG Black 0.S7 Barneveld, Gelderland, The Netherlands 28/06/11 - (c) Herman Bouman



The Gull Breeding Season on Jethou

Michelle Hooper, Sophie Veron and I went over to Jethou Island on Monday to complete the 2011 seabird monitoring there. The weather was perfect with only a gentle breeze and warm but cloudy conditions. We arrived shortly before low tide, and so had perfect conditions for the seabird work. This trip was geared around monitoring the gulls and colour ringing chicks. It was very successful with a total of 51 Herring Gulls and nine Great Black-backed Gulls being ringed (all colour ringed except one Herring Gull). We also found one large Oystercatcher chick. I was particularly pleased to see the Herring Gulls being so successful on Jethou, as in most of the other colonies I have been to in the Bailiwick this year numbers appeared to me to be rather thin with poor to modest success.

Crevichon

Grande Fauconniere

House Beach 

Oystercatcher chick

PKV ringing Herring Gull 0CR8 

Sophie with Herring Gull 5CR0 

Great Black-backed Gulls Yellow 0.XX1 and 0.XX2

GBBG Yellow 0.XX6

Herring Gull 0CR7