LBBG with some Baltic Gull Genes in Guernsey?

OK - let's be clear...I'm not claiming a record of Baltic Gull in Guernsey. However, yesterday at Chouet Landfill I saw a LBBG which I think may well have some Baltic Gull genes. The bird was strikingly distinctive...being slender in the body, relatively long-winged, and with obviously dark-mantle and wings (allowing for the fact it is still in immature plumage). Compare the photos from Chouet with some I took in Morocco last December of LBBGs (which have a decent amount of Baltic genes - in my book!). I also set out below a photo of a Norwegian cr Baltic Gull I saw a few years back at Quarteira, Portugal.

Of course, given the problem of hybridisation with intermedius and graellsii in many of the Norwegian colonies I know I am going to have to see a colour ringed bird from a pure colony to be able to truly claim a Baltic Gull in the Channel Islands...so I am very reliant on my gull ringing friends in Northern Europe!

Whatever...for me this has become the Holy Grail of gull watching in Guernsey...with LBBG my undisputed favourite bird (if it is possible to have such a thing)...and amongst this complex...surely fuscus is the most striking and beautiful of the lot?!

LBBG (perhaps with some Baltic genes?) at Chouet Landfill 02 April 2014 (c) PKV

Possible Baltic Gulls Morocco December 2013 (c) PKV

Baltic Gull, Quarteira, Portugal December 2010 (c) PKV

Norwegian, Portuguese and French-Ringed LBBGs at Chouet...and an Iceland Gull!

Today was clearly the best day of the spring so far at Chouet! With three foreign-ringed LBBGs (Blue JV7V from Vest-Agder, Norway, Red 140K from Dunkirk, France and Blue M:012 from Coimbra, Portugal) there was plenty of excitement. However...if that wasn't enough a 1st winter Iceland Gull put in an all too brief appearance at the landfill, and I managed to record c 170 cr LBBGs, 70 HGs and 11 GBBGs in a two-hour spell from 0730-0930. It doesn't get much better than that!

 LBBG Red  140K from Dunkirk, France (c) PKV

 LBBG Blue JV7V from Vest-Agder, Norway (c) PKV

 LBBG Blue M:012 from Coimbra, Portugal (c) PKV

 Gulls at Chouet landfill (c) PKV

Local cr LBBGs at Chouet (c) PKV

Norwegian LBBG Drops in at Chouet

The highlight of another very good gull colour ring recording session at Chouet landfill this morning was a Norwegian Lesser Black-backed Gull (Black JL1X) which joined the local birds very briefly. I suspect , as I type this several hours later, it may already be some distance up the continental coast driven by the desire to get back on its breeding territory. Ringed as an adult male on 20 April 2014 at Fredrikstad, Ostfold, Norway, Black JL1X was recorded in October 2013 at Quarteira Beach, Faro. Its ultimate wintering site currently remains unknown.

 Movements of LBBG Black JL1X

 Gulls at Chouet landfill

LBBGs at Chouet Landfill - all photos (c) PKV

Welsh GBBG in Guernsey

Yesterday morning  there was a very nice assortment of gulls resting on on Chouet Beach after bathing in the sea. Amongst them was GBBG Yellow D:AT - one of 20 chicks ringed on 16 June 2013 on Denny Island, Monmouthshire, Wales - a small islet in the Bristol Channel. This is a new colour ringing project established in 2013 by the Goldcliff Ringing Group. This is the first GBBG ringed in Wales to be recorded in the Channel Islands. 

The tides have been excellent this week for checking Chouet beaches for gulls before work, and on most days I've recorded c 100-150 LBBGs each day, adding important data to our long-term gull studies.

Denny Island, Monmouthshire, Wales (c) Richard Clarke

 GBBG Yellow D:AT at Chouet Beach (c) PKV

 Gulls on Chouet Beach (c) PKV

Gulls at Chouet landfill Beach (c) PKV

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The Fun of Learning about our Gulls

One of the things we are trying to learn about gulls nesting in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, through our colour ringing programme, is fidelity (or otherwise) to natal sites. With the studies commencing in 2008 (LBBG) and 2009 (HG and GBBG) we are only now beginning to get the first clues from chicks ringed in those early years, as they approach maturity and make their first breeding attempts.

In regard to GBBGs we already have confirmed reports from Jean-Michel Sauvage of a metal-ringed chick from Burhou, Alderney in 2005 now nesting regularly in the town of Boulogne, Pas-de-Calais, France. We may now be on the cusp of receiving our second confirmed case of emigration for GBBGs with news that Yellow 0.AA6 (a chick ringed on Jethou in June 2010) is being regularly seen on, and in the vicinity of, Looe Island in Cornwall, where there is another significant colony of GBBGs which is being well studied through a colour ringing project being led by Bruce Taggart. The Guernsey GBBG may make a breeding attempt this year, or scout the colony ahead of next season.

Below is are photos of Yellow 0.AA6 when ringed as a chick, and then on Looe Island in May 2012 and again in March 2104.

 GBBG Yellow 0.AA6 as chick Jethou - 09 June 2010 (c) PKV

 GBBG Yellow 0.AA6 at Looe Island 03 May 2012 (c) Claire Lewis

GBBG Yellow 0.AA6 Looe Island 19 March 2014 (c) Sue Cornwall Seal Group

Amidst the Hail and Sunshine...Lots of Gulls!

Several seasons unfolded in a couple of hours this morning at Chouet landfill with cold winter winds and heavy hail showers, followed a few minutes alter by warm spring sunshine! Around 240 gull colour ring reads were taken - c 160 LBBGs, 70 Herring Gulls and nine GBBGs.Several LBBGs were recorded for the first time this season, and there was a lot of courtship behaviour from the gulls - summer must be on the way!

Gulls at Chouet Landfill 22 March 2014 (c) PKV