283 Gull Colour Rings Read at Chouet this Morning

In what was a very relaxed and enjoyable (if a little chilly) three hours at Chouet landfill today, I recorded 283 colour rings - 153 Herring Gulls, 122 LBBGs and 8 GBBGs.With the tide high many gulls loafed on flat areas in the landfill making ring reading quite straight forward. Amongst the LBBGs were a few of my chicks ringed in 2009 and 2010. I am always very pleased to see these birds coming home as they approach breeding age!

Gulls at Chouet Landfill (c) PKV

Some Valuable Gull Sightings in Sark

Last weekend visiting birder Dave Murray also visited Sark, and recorded another 20 of our colour ringed gulls there. The majority were Herring Gulls, although Dave also read one cr LBBG and a British metal-ringed LBBG (originally ringed in Gloucestershire, England in February 2004). It is always very valuable to have gull ring reads from the other islands of the Bailiwick in summer as it helps to suggest where some of the gulls caught at Chouet are actually nesting. A real bonus was also some very nice photos taken by Dave.

Gulls at Sark Harbour (c) Dave Murray

A Very Good Morning at Chouet with Dave Murray

On Saturday morning Dave Murray and I enjoyed a superb gull spectacle at Chouet landfill. Many thanks (as ever) to Mel on site for getting us into an excellent position both to read rings and also photograph gulls! With Dave behind the camera, I focused entirely on ring reading. In several hours we notched up more than 250 ring reads between us (roughly evenly split between LBBGs and Herring Gulls with a few GBBGs for good measure! It was a really fantastic gull experience. Below is a selection of Dave's excellent photos to remind us of another wonderful session in the landfill!

All Photos (c) Dave Murray

At Almost 24 Years- E4141 is one of my Oldest Gulls

This morning on Chouet Landfill Beach I read metal ring Jersey  E4141 on an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull. Incredibly I ringed this bird as a chick on Sark in July 1989 - almost 24 years ago. While there is no doubt that this is a good age for a gull, this is not a longevity record for the species - a LBBG ringed as a chick in a colony in Cumbria was killed in the same colony when it was nearly 35 years old. Let's hope there's some life left in E4141 yet! 

LBBG E4141 (metal ring only) possibly with Black 9N5 Chouet Landfill Beach (c) PKV