Gulls Gather as Breeding Season Draws to a Close.

I simply love this time of year...on one of our beaches this morning I watched a regular post breeding flock of more than 1,000 gulls...the vast majority were Herring Gulls. Within weeks some of these birds will be in western France, where they will stay until Christmas, before returning to claim their nesting territories again.
As they leave the beaches will host gulls from much further north, as they migrate from northern Europe to Iberia and North-western Africa.
Every day is new and different...and it's such a privilege just to enjoy this wonderful spectacle on this small island!

GBBG White L:CA7 ringed at Looe Island, Cornwall (c) PKV



Young Gulls on the Beaches!

It was another superb early morning outing to the beaches at Chouet and Pembroke. Lots of colour ringed gulls, including juveniles for all three breeding species...I just really love this time of year!

LBBG B3FC1 - rather shy !

Herring Gull W3FT2

LBBG 1FC4

Gulls on Chouet Landfill Beach (c) PKV



Ant-Fest!

It's that time of year again, and this late summer the hatching of flying ants is again very good. As a result the gulls are feasting. It's always wonderful to watch gulls feeding on ants in mid-air in large swirling cauldons. This morning the gulls were all over the Common feasting on ants. Unfortunately a main road runs adjacent to the common and many gulls were also taking dead ants from the road...with the inevitable result that there was at least one casualty. Some drivers are so oblivious or divorced from the natural world that they don't even slow down! To me it's a wonderful spectacle of our natural world...and yet some drivers don't even notice it!

Gulls eating ants on L'Ancresse Common this morning (c) PKV



Immature Lesser Black-backed Gulls summering in Iberia

Although a minority of our Lesser Black-backed Gulls born and reared in the Bailiwick do return back north as far as their natal colonies in their first summers, the majority stay south in Iberia, where they have wintered. It is always a real pleasure for me to hear about these gulls from the growing number of local birders in Spain and Portugal who not only take the time and trouble to report the colour rings, but very often send me wonderful photos of the birds.

Manuel Petiz is one such birder who regularly sends me gull reports and photos from the beaches Portugal's west coast.

(C) Manuel Petiz

LBBG B0CS6 on Burhou July 2014 (c) PKV

0CS6 at Espinho, Portugal (c) Manuel Petiz



Bellegreve Mediterranean Gull Roost Reaches 44 birds today

Viewing conditions at Bellegreve Bay were perfect at high tide this morning, with a very calm sea and beautiful early morning light. The Mediterranean Gull roost contained at least 44 birds today - numbers appear to be slowly increasing by the day!

The Best Med Gull Roost so Far!

The high tide roost at Bulwer Avenue was even more impressive this morning with at least 37 Mediterranean Gulls and 11 Sandwich Terns. Amongst the Med Gulls were three Belgian and one French-ringed birds, and one of the Sandwich Terns was also colour ringed - a Dutch bird I think.

Sandwich Term Lime Green N04 from The Netherlands

Med Gull Green RU18 from Noirmoutier Island, Vendee, France

Site faithful Med Gull 3E90 from Belgium



Med Gulls



Med Gulls 3E90 and 3LLP both from Belgium



Another Foreign-ringed Mediterranean Gull in Guernsey

A quick check of the high tide roost at Bellegreve Bay this morning resulted in a count of c 30 Mediterranean Gulls, including a French-ringed bird.

With Camille Duponcheel's usual stunning efficiency I already have the details for Med Gull Green RU18, seen in Bellegreve Bay this morning. It was ringed as a chick on Noirmoutier Island, Vendee, France in June 2014. It was subsequently seen in Devon, England that autumn, before being seen in Jersey earlier this month.

Med Gulls really do have one of the more complex and interesting dispersal/migration strategies of all the European gulls!

First Adult LBBG reaches Iberia

With my first colour ringed adult LBBGs being seen in NW France a few days back, it was only a matter of time before the first autumn migrant reached Iberia. Last night Manuel Petiz sent me news and a very nice photo of Black 2AL6 on the beach at Espinho, Portugal on 24th July. This adult was known to be in Guernsey this summer. Some of our adult LBBGs really don't hang around after the end of the breeding season!

LBBG B2AL6 at Espinho, Portugal 24 July 2015 (c) Manuel Petiz



Weather for Gulls?!

For ducks maybe...but I don't think the gulls have been appreciating the very wet weekend here in the Channel Islands. The very nice photos below show one of my cr Herring Gulls, which is a regular in Jersey...looks a bit forlorn doesn't it...waiting (like us!) for the sun to shine again?!

Rather wet Herring Gull at Grosnez, Jersey (c) Mick Dryden



The end of the Breeding Season for Gulls

With the end of the breeding season approaching for most of the island's gulls, many of the adults and the first of the juveniles are gathering on the beaches. My first colour ringed adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls are already in the Bay of Biscay, and within days now I expect reports from Northern Spain. The migration is very spread out though, with some of the birds remaining here until late August/early September.
I've already seen juvenile Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls n the beaches, and numbers should now grow through the rest of July and into August...before many adult Herring Gulls move south-west to the sandy beaches of western France, where they will moult.

Gulls at Chouet Landfill Beach (c) PKV

Hungarian and Belgian Mediterranean Gulls in Guernsey

A quick look at the high tide roost in Bellegreve Bay today resulted in a count of 26 Mediterranean Gulls, including three colour-ringed bird - two from Belgium and one from Hungary. At least three of the gulls carried only a metal ring, and one of these was read (another Belgian bird). The message is clear...if you want to record some interesting gull movements no other species has such a high percentage of colour-ringed birds as Mediterranean Gulls...and they have a really interesting and diverse migration/dispersal strategy!

Mediterranean Gull White E898 at Bellegreve bay (c) PKV



Burhou's Amazing Storm Petrel Population

Jenni from AWT has kindly sent a few photos from last weekend's seabird monitoring on Burhou. The Storm Petrel work requires working through the night, as these small ocean wanderers only come ashore after dark. It's hard to overstate just how important this survey work is because we don't really know much about the population on Burhou - other than it is significantly larger than we thought...and we don't really know how to best conserve and protect the petrels yet! The size of Swallows these tiny seabirds can ride out the fiercest storms and gales that Mother Nature can throw at them. It's another stunning example of just how amazing our natural world is!
Over two nights we caught 536 different Storm petrels, including 147 birds that had been ringed in previous years (thus giving even more valuable data). Amongst the ringed birds there were also a few British and French-ringed petrels.  All in all it was a very valuable short field trip.

Storm Petrel Monitoring on Burhou (c) Jeni Godber



358 Gull Chicks Colour Ringed This Year

Given that the National Seabird Census was the top priority this year, and given all the other distractions and priorities that spread through my summer, I am actually very pleased to end the season with another 358 gull chicks colour ringed. Ironically it was a productive season for Great Black-backed Gulls, but the total number of chicks ringed was only 29. We only sampled some of the Herring Gull colonies to ring 82 chicks this year. 

The one highlight really was the total of 247 Lesser Black-backed Gull chicks ringed, as this is my principal study species, and this total reflects where my limited effort could be expended this season. As ever I am most grateful to the small number of people who help with this important work each year.

Hard to describe the level of contentment when the work has been done! (c) Jenni Godber





 

The Seabird Season - Saving the Best Until the Last!

The Seabird Season was such hard work this year, with the emphasis on the National Seabird census...the first in 15 years...so I was determined to enjoy the last monitoring trip of the season on Burhou. In many ways we managed to save the best until last. Here's a few more photos...all courtesy of Jenni and Holly of AWT (both of whom were excellent at finding gull chicks in the bracken!)

Ringing LBBG and HG chicks on Burhou (c) Jenni Godber