New GuernseyGulls On-line Reporting System Goes Live

There is now a new web site where records of all Guernsey colour-ringed gulls and Great Cormorants can be entered online direct by the observers, with instant full life histories available. The site is now fully operational in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. My thanks to Francois Leclerc, Gilbert Vimard, Carlos Pacheco and Antonio Gutierrez for invaluable help with the relevant translations!
The site has only been possible through the hard work and commitment of Jean-Luc Jean, Peter Carre and Colin Le Conte of Digimap Ltd, to whom we are all very grateful!.

Another advantage of the web site for observers is that once registered you can access your own records of Guernsey birds at all times, and the links will automatically update with any subsequent sightings of these birds.

The web site is available at   http://webmaps.digimap.gg/BirdRings/

So...next time you see a Guernsey colour-ringed gull please access the web site, register and enter your sightings. As before...any questions or issues should be sent to me at pkv@cwgsy.net

For the moment it is not possible to dowload photos onto the site. I hope to work on this function in the future. Please continue to send photographs of any colour ringed birds to me by e-mail.

Many thanks for your continued records and best wishes

Paul

Paul K Veron
GuernseyGulls
web: www.guernseygulls.co.uk
web: www.guernseygulls.blogspot.com

Back to the Landfill

With an early morning high tide, and thick mist after dawn, I spent 90 minutes at Chouet landfill. As expected there were few adult LBBGs (less than 50) but amongst them was Norwegian bird - Black JP50, ringed as a chick in July 2006 in Vest-Agder. Amongst a handful of GBBGs were three French-ringed birds from Chausey Islands. It was heartening to see so many juvenile gulls feeding at the landfill, mostly Herring Gulls (with very few cr birds!), but also a small number of LBBGs and GBBGs.

 LBBG Black JP50 from Norway

 Herring Gull White 9HW2 (rehabilitated by GSPCA this summer)

 GBBGs from Chausey islands, France

Chouet landfill in the Mist

Record Number of Yellow-legged Gulls!

OK - it's only three...but all on the same beach today...that's a first for me on Guernsey! All three michahellis Yellow-legged Gulls were hatched three or more years ago, but still have traces of immature plumage. There were also almost 1,000 LBBGs along Guernsey's west coast today (mostly on L'Eree), with 76 Guernsey and Alderney colour-ringed birds. There have been far fewer GBBGs on the beaches over the past two days, which is consistent with this fine weather we are enjoying. I suspect the majority are well offshore at the moment. The first decent autumn storm will bring them ashore in numbers. The number of French GBBGs (both from Chausey Islands and Seine-Maritime) is increasing noticeably now.

 Part of LBBG Gull flock on L'Eree

 Three different Yellow-legged Gulls on L'Eree

 Two Chausey-ringed GBBGs on L'Eree

LBBG Black 5.A2 on L'Eree

GBBG Black 85M from Seine-Maritime on Pembroke 

Gulls Galore!

The past few days have seen lots of interest gull-wise. Today there were c 700 Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the Island's West Coast - mainly local birds (60 cr birds), but the regular Dutch autumn passage migrant Orange 9V was present again. Another of Peter Rock's juvenile LBBGs (Yellow L+H) is also present. This bird was ringed on a roof top in Cardiff, Wales in early July.

 Great Black-backed Gulls are wandering about again now, with nine French-ringed birds (including the first juvenile from Le Havre, Seine-Maritime - Black 29M), one English bird, and a new 2nd calendar year Norwegian-ringed bird from Vest-Adger (Black JE241).

An adult Yellow-legged Gull at Perelle rounded off a very successful morning!

 Gulls on Pembroke Beach - Early Morning

 Gulls at Perelle Beach

LBBG Yellow L+H at Chouet Landfill Beach

More Seabirds at Sea

With a moderate to strong NW wind the previous day, and with the winds reducing overnight to a light to moderate northerly, things looked well set for an exciting pelagic seabirds trip on Sunday 25 August. The keen crew assembled at the Fish Quay, ready to board Richard Keen’s boat the Margaret K. We usually head out c 10 miles NW of Guernsey...but it soon became apparent that the sea was livelier than forecast with a dirty confused swell. This made viewing difficult and at times unpleasant. We therefore kept within 5 miles of the coast, and from 0800 to 1400 we completed an anti-clockwise circuit around Guernsey . Several times we stopped to put chum in the water to attract seabirds.

The highlights of the trip included a three metre Basking Shark (right alongside the boat), lots of Balearic (30+) and Manx Shearwaters (20+) and the discovery of a line of rich feeding several miles long parallel to the Island’s west coast, where there was continual activity from diving Northern Gannets. A line of floating weed indicated the rich zone. Presumably this was where two tidal currents met, causing up-wellings of rich nutrients and good feeding conditions for fish and in turn seabirds?

An estimation of the seabirds encountered was as follows:-

500+ Northern Gannets, 20+ European Storm-petrels, 30 Balearic Shearwaters, 20 Manx Shearwaters, 10 Northern Fulmars, 1 Great Skua, 1 (probable) Pomarine Skua, 3 Arctic Skuas, 50 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 30 Great Black-backed Gulls, 1 Black Tern, 2 Sandwich Terns and 10 Common Terns.

It wasn’t one of the best pelagic we’ve ever done, but once again it proved to be an interesting day on the sea.

Another Welsh LBBG and the First Juv GBBG from England.

The last couple of days have seen plenty of interest. A visit to Chouet landfill yesterday morning demonstrated very clearly that the majority of Lesser Black-backed Gulls have migrated away from the islands. Only 24 cr birds were observed in the usual two hours watching. Once again the landfill is taking on  a pale grey sheen, as Herring Gulls vastly outnumber any other species. Amongst 100+ juvenile gulls in the landfill were a reasonable number of LBBGs - including Black 2CCO ringed on Sark at the end of June.

A run down the coast this morning was always going to be difficult, given the quickly rising tide...but again it was very worthwhile with 23 of my cr LBBGs, and an adult bird ringed on Flat Holm Cardiff, Wales. The first juvenile GBBG of the autumn from Cornwall, England was also seen today - White L:BB2, the other four French-ringed and single British-ringed GBBGs had all been observed previously on Guernsey.

News from Portugal - including LBBG in a Hurry!

Yesterday Tim van Nus reported a superb series of 25 Guernsey LBBG observations at Eirol Landfill in Central Portugal. We are very fortunate that Tim is now back in Portugal, after his summer's work in The Netherlands, and that he has already been to observe the gulls at Eirol. Adult Guernsey LBBGs tend to arrive in this part of Portugal quite early in late summer, and while some will stay in the area all winter, many others will stage there for some weeks before continuing further south into Iberia or even into NW Africa, before migrating back to Guernsey early next spring. One of the gulls seen yesterday Black 8C2 was still in Guernsey only three days earlier - thus completing the direct flight of 1,100 km in less than 72 hours!

An account of Tim's visit to Eirol Landfill can be seen at his blog at http://timvannus.blogspot.com/

Black 8C2 -a gull in a big hurry back to Portugal this week!

1st Winter Yellow-legged Gull - Eureka!!!

It has been such a  long time coming...and in the end I just about lost confidence in being able to identify one...but today...as well as an adult Yellow-legged Gull on L'Eree Bay, there was also a (for me mythical) 1st winter bird on Vazon Beach. I was not going to post this until I'd checked with a couple of gull experts who know a lot more than me (Antonio Gutierrez in Spain and Paul Roper in England)...but it would seem we all agree the bird seen and photographed is indeed my first ever 1st winter michahellis in Guernsey! Seldom have I been so thrilled (and relieved) to have seen such a relatively common bird. Now the hardest part is over...surely now just like buses...the first has come...so many more will soon follow?!!!

1st Winter Yellow-legged Gull - Vazon (c) PKV