Herring Gulls in Guernsey

On 7th August 2011, Dave Murray (who lives in NW England) visited Guernsey for the day – as part of a cruise. Dave is a keen recorder of gull colour rings, and he has seen several Guernsey birds in the Malaga region of Spain. He has also been to Guernsey a couple of times for long weekends. On his most recent flying visit he managed to record 15 locally ringed Herring Gulls and one cr Great Black-backed Gull in St Peter Port Harbour. As usual Dave very kindly sent me some very nice photos of these gulls.

Hungarian Mediterranean Gull and Polish Black-headed Gull in Guernsey

Immediately after a stunning sunrise at Pembroke Beach this morning I saw two juvenile Mediterranean Gulls amongst the 500+ Herring Gulls. Both were active and remained on the beach for only a minute or two. Amazingly one of these juveniles had a red colour ring. Every time it stopped moving it was blocked by a large gull so I struggled to see the ring. Then I got a clear view and recorded Red HKK3...and only a few seconds later the bird disappeared (and I could not relocate it). I'm pretty sure this is a bird ringed in HUNGARY...but will await confirmation! I looked for the bird for over an hour, including on Bellegreve Bay, where there were only two Mediterranean Gulls. The cr bird was not there...but amongst the roosting Black-headed Gulls was White TARM - a bird ringed as an adult in a colony at Przykona Reservoir, Radyczyny, Turek, POLAND on 05 June 2010 - and recorded at Bellegreve Bay, Guernsey from 14 August to 01 September 2010.

It has been a very good couple of days as yesterday I saw Lesser Black-backed Gull Red FTFA (juvenile) on Pembroke Beach. This gull had been ringed as a chick on 10 July 2011 on Havergate Island, Suffolk, England by Mike Marsh.

Pembroke Sunrise - PKV 

Bellegreve Bay - PKV 

Black-headed Gull White TARM - PKV 

Lesser Black-backed Gull Red FTFA - PKV



Back to Burhou, Alderney

Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to be able to get back to Burhou, Alderney. This visit was made at the request of the Alderney Wildlife Trust to help BBC's Coast Team film European Storm-Petrels for a new series to be shown in the spring/summer 2012.Chris Mourant came up with me and in the first three and a half hours after dark we caught 61 Stormies - 41 new birds, 19 retraps from Burhou (all at least five years old) and one British-ringed bird. Unfortunately some heavy rain showers then swept in and we had to furl the net. It was absolutely marvellous though to be handling these amazing little seabirds again - after a gap of nearly five years!

Of course while I was on Burhou I was very keen to record any of my colour ringed gulls that were still present on the island. It was fascinating to visit the colony so late in the season. As expected there were very few fledged young, but just over half the adults were still on the island (c 1,200 birds). I was surprised how attached they still were to the colony, despite their lack of success in raising young this year. No doubt they will continue to drift away over the next few days and weeks.

138 ring reads were taken on Lesser Black-backed Gulls - including one British ringed adult (Peter Rock) and one juvenile bird from Belgium (Eric Stienen).

BBC Coast Team, Burhou -PKV 

Main LBBG Colony - Burhou - PKV 

Roosting LBBGs - Burhou - PKV 

Little Burhou - PKV 

LBBGs loafing in main colony - Burhou - PKV 

Crabby Bay, Alderney - PKV 

LBBG Black 3.K0 Burhou - PKV 

LBBG Black 3.P3 Burhou - PKV 

LBBG Black 0AC6 Burhou - PKV



A Very Special Great Black-backed Gull!

Sophie with GBBG Happy Birthday Cake ! 

More GBBG cr juveniles appearing on the beaches 

Herring Gull White 8CP9 Pembroke 

Herring Gull White 2CR8 Pembroke

Mediterranean Gull White 3E90 Bellegreve Bay - PKV

It has been a very enjoyable birthday weekend with a special Great Black-backed Gull cake made by Sophie! On the gulling front it is wonderful now to see more and more of my juvenile colour ringed Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls on the beaches. Although the majority of my adult cr Lesser Black-backed Gulls have now migrated south, I can still find a small selection when I search for them.

Great news in from Spain over the weekend too where Paco Veiga and Antonio Gutierrez saw nine of my Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the gull flocks on Donana and Pantin beaches respectively!







Great Black-backed Gulls from Four Schemes and Two British Lesser Black-backed Gulls

After a reasonably quiet period, things have really picked up with gull movements over the last couple of days. Early morning visits to Chouet and Pembroke have resulted in sightings of Great Black-backed Gulls from Rainham, Greater London (Orange PF6T. -North Thames Gull Group), Chausey Islands, Manche, France (Green J.60 - Seb Provost), Seine-Maritime, France (Blue 47D - Gilles Le Guillou) and several of my own birds (including three cr juveniles - Yellow 0.PP0, 0.XX7 and 0.VV6).

Lesser Black-backed Gulls have not been outdone either. Today Blue JLL was seen on L'Ancresse Common. This gull was ringed at Gloucester Landfill, England (SEGG) on 22 May 2010, then seen (presumably on passage) in Guernsey at L'Ancresse on 01 August 2010. It is ten days later passing through this year! Also today on Chouet landfill Beach was LBBG White C+G - a juvenile ringed by Peter Rock this summer in one of the cities in SW England.

Finally Lesser Black-backed Gull Black 6.V4 was seen on Chouet Landfill Beach - one of my 2010 chicks from Burhou, Alderney.

LBBG White C+G Chouet Landfill Beach - PKV 

LBBG Blue JLL L'Ancresse Common - PKV 

Gull Flock L'Ancresse Common - PKV 

Gulls on Chouet Landfill Beach - PKV 

GBBG Orange PF6T. Chouet Landfill Beach - PKV

GBBG Yellow 0.CC8 Chouet Landfill Beach - PKV 

LBBG Black 6.V4 Chouet Landfill Beach - PKV 

LBBG Black 7L0 Chouet Landfill Beach - PKV 

LBBG Black 6AA6 Chouet Landfill Beach PKV

A Productive Weekend

Checks of the Island's northern beaches over the past two mornings were very productive with 275 ring reads over the two days. It is very noticeable how the Lesser Black-backed Gulls are thinning out as more and more birds migrat mainly south - 45 colour ring reads of my local birds were taken. Of the 19 Great Black-backed Gulls recorded, two were well-known immature birds from France (Green J.60 from Chausey Islands - Seb Provost) and Blue 47D from Seine-Maritime (Gilles Le Guillou). Hopefully over the next few weeks we will begin to see this year's young from these two sites!

Herring Gull ring reads predominiated with 211 - all local birds. The pick of these were of course the 16 records of my 2011 born chicks! It was wonderful to see the first three of my fledged juvenile Great Black-backed Gulls too (one from Herm, one from Lihou and one from Bordeaux, Guernsey).

Antonio Gutierrez kindly sent me this photo (taken yesterday) of Pantin Beach on the NW corner of Spain. It isn't hard to see why Lesser Black-backed Gulls are thinning in Guernsey now - there are three of them in this photo of Antonio's!

Gulls on Pantin Beach, NW Spain - Antonio Gutierrez

LBBG Black 9F5 - Antonio Gutierrez 

LBBG Black 0.K0 - Antonio Gutierrez

LBBG Black 0.H2 Antonio Gutierrez

Post-dawn Pembroke Beach, Guernsey - 07 August 2011 - PKV



Guernsey Ringed Great Black-backed Gull Seen in Vendee, France

News came in recently of one of my Great Black-backed Gulls, Yellow 0.KK1, which was ringed as a chick on the islets to the north of Herm in June 2010. It was sighted at the well-known gull wintering area of Le Tanchet, Les Sables d’Olonne, Vendee, France on 03/12/2010 by Michel Fouquet. While quite a few “Guernsey-ringed” Herring Gulls have been seen on this coastline in the autumn/winter period, this is the first of our Great Black-backed Gulls to be reported from the area. Although the GBBG project is in its early stages, most sightings of chicks ringed in the islands have so far come from the south-west of England (Cornwall and Devon).

GBBG Yellow 0.KK1 The Humps, Herm - June 2010 - PKV



Gulls on the Move

Having just returned from a week in France, I was eager to get out this morning to check the island’s northern beaches for gulls. In an hour and a half I recorded 165 colour ringed birds – almost all local. From the reports now coming in from NW Spain it is clear that many of the adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls which were in the islands this summer are now moving south, although there were still 350+ LBBGs on the beaches this morning (including 41 of my cr birds). It was encouraging to record 50+ juvenile Herring Gulls (including six of my 2011 chicks: three from Lihou, two from Jethou and one from Sark). I also saw my 1st fledged colour ringed juvenile Great Black-backed Gull this morning – Yellow 0.PP6 (from Lihou). There were a handful (less than 10) Lesser Black-backed Gull juveniles on the beaches too, but none were colour ringed.

Pembroke Beach - early morning - PKV