More Guernsey Gulls in NW Africa

In what has turned out to be a golden period for LBBG sightings, I've just received news of 14 sightings, involving seven birds, from the Norwegian Gull Group, who visited Morocco and Western Sahara for a week of intensive gull colour ring reading in the early February. Interestingly all the gulls were ringed as adults (at Chouet Landfill, Ty Coed, Vale Marais, Guernsey and on Burhou, Alderney), and three of them were observed in the same wintering area in NW Africa as in the previous winter - in fact I had even seen two of these gulls myself at Anza, Agadir, Morocco in December 2010. Last summer these gulls were observed back in the Channel Islands! My thanks to the Norwegian Team for all their hard work!

 

Anza, Morocco

11th International Gull Meeting in Croatia

From 16-19 February 2012 Catherine and I attended the 11^th International Gull Meeting in Zagreb, Croatia. A few days ago I posted an article about the fieldwork sessions from the Conference where we observed a range of gulls at Zagreb Landfill on the Saturday, and then colour ringed some the following day. However, the Conference also had a very varied and informative series of presentations from a number of gull enthusiasts from around Europe. These talks covered areas as diverse as ecology and migration to identification of some very difficult races. Naturally I took the opportunity to make a presentation on the gull projects being run in the Bailiwick of Guernsey.

Our sincere thanks to the Association of Biological Research (BIOM), Croatia, and to Luka Jurinovic and his small team of colleagues who hosted such an enjoyable and successful Conference!

A full list if presentations was as follows:-

Cyril Mahaim Saunders’s Gull and Relict Gull, two specialized and threatened species
Chris Gibbins Is it possible to identify heinei Common Gulls in the field?
Risto Juvaste Sexing of gull chicks by measurements
Risto Juvaste Exciting (but yet secret) results from 127 GPS-transmitter LBBG-migration project
Peter Rock Urban gulls
Paul Roper North Thames Gull Group
Paul Veron Guernsey Gulls – An outline of the research projects being run on the three Larid species breeding in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, English Channel
Zsolt Karcza & Peter Szinai Gull colour ringing in Hungary 1994-2011
Nick Rossiter Yellow-legged Gull: Differences between Atlantic and Mediterranean populations
Ruud Altenburg Extent of post-juvenile moult in first winter michahellis
Mars Muusse ID of second calendar year Larus heuglini
Morten Helberg Were do Norwegian gulls migrate? Results from read ringing data from southern Norway 1995-present
Luka Jurinović Gulls in Croatia: species, statuses and numbers
Jelena Kralj Movements of eastern Adriatic Yellow-legged Gulls – 12 years of colour-ringing
Vladimir Savić Influenza viruses in gulls
Viola Ross-Smith Gull migration: calibrating colour ringing data with GPS telemetry
Aonghais Cook Analysis of colour-ringing data: Maximising the impact of your efforts

 

 

 

 

For Luka's view of the weekend visit his excellent blog Ringing in Croatia  http://cro-ringing.blogspot.com/

Ringing Caspian and Yellow-legged Gulls in Croatia

Catherine and I have just returned from the 11th International Gull Meeting, held in Zagreb, Croatia from 16 - 19 February. The meeting was very informative and successful, as well as being most enjoyable. I will make a separate posting about the IGM, but while we were there our host Luka Jurinovik teamed up with Paul Roper of the North Thames Gull Group to cannon net some gulls in Zagreb Landfill. On Sunday in two firings of the net we caught 80 gulls, including 12 Caspian Gulls and even more Yellow-legged Gulls, as well as Croatia's first ever ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull, an argentatus Herring Gull, some Common Gulls and Black-headed Gulls. This gave us a superb opportunity to see the range of plumages related to age and geographical area in some of these gulls.

For much better photos of a range of gulls on the landfill please visit the following link created by Mars Muusse on the excellent Gull Research Organisation web site.


http://www.talk.gull-research.org/viewforum.php?f=26

 Luka with 1st W Caspian Gull

 Luka with 1st ever ringed LBBG in Croatia

 1stW Caspian Gull

 2nd W Caspian Gull

 1st W Caspian Gull

PKV at Zagreb Landfill

 Viola Ross-Smith with Yellow-legged Gull (michahellis)

 PKV (rather happy!)_ with 1stW Caspian Gull

 Luka with the LBBG

Peter Rock with Common Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull in The Gambia!

One of the Lesser Black-backed Gull chicks ringed on Burhou in July 2010, and which was recorded by Michael Davis at Quarteira, Faro, Portugal in October of that year was reported by Clive Barlow from Tanji Bird Reserve, The Gambia on 15 February 2012 - a straight line distance of 4,256 km! Although a small minority of LBBGs from Western Europe are known to winter this far south, this is the first evidence that Channels Islands birds make such long migrations. The photos below show just how advanced this gull is in its moult...and the Clive Barlow's photo shows the gull in rather illustrious company at Tanji!
I am very very happy with this amazing report!

 LBBG Black 6.T5 Tanji, The Gambia - 15 February 2012 - Clive Barlow

LBBG Black 6.T5 Quarteira, Faro, Portugal 02 October 2010 - Michael Davis

How did I miss that Iceland Gull?!

Chris Mourant, Mish Hooper and I came so very close this morning to catching the 1st Winter Iceland Gull that has been around for the past couple of days! The bird came down in the garden with a small feeding party of Herring Gulls - it even landed in the correct area, but somehow (and I'll never know how!)...it evaded capture...and all we were left with for the morning's efforts were two re-trap Herring Gulls. After nearly four decades of bird ringing I'm well used to experiencing disappointment when the birds beat me...but for a short while it still tastes bitter!

Oh well...there's always next week...when I hope to be cannon netting gulls in Zagreb Landfill!

A Record Breaking Morning at Chouet Landfill

With cold weather and a big high tide soon after dawn, it was always going to be a good session at Chouet landfill this morning - but I did not expect a record breaking morning. The highlights included:-

1. 2 or 3 adult Yellow-legged Gulls - including White 1CA9, which we ringed at Chouet last May (but unfortunately it remained unrecorded again until today);
2. A 1st Winter Iceland Gull;
3. 10 returning ringed Lesser Black-backed Gulls; and
4. A staggering 234 colour ringed Herring Gulls.

All in all it was one of the most enjoyable ring reading sessions for a long time!

Yellow-legged Gull White 1CA9

Yellow-legged Gull 

Chouet Landfill

LBBG White 2.T5 

LBBG White 2.T5 

LBBG Black 3.H1 

LBBG Black 8F7 

LBBG Black 1AC0 

Herring Gull White 1.DD5 

HG White 1.AL2 

HG White 2.AX5 

HG White 2.VV9 

HG White 2M5 

HG White 4CT7 

HG White 6.AV0 

HG White 6.JJ5 

HG White 6CK0 

HG White 8CN0

More LBBGs returning to Guernsey

A very quick trip to Chouet before work this morning saw me record another three colour ringed LBBGs which have returned to Guernsey – Black 7K9, 7T8 and 5AC3 (the last of which was observed at Aveiro, Portugal in December 2011 – Tim van Nus). This brings to eight the number of my colour ringed LBBGs which I have now seen back in the Island this year. An adult Yellow-legged Gull was on the beach at Chouet, while I was also very pleased to catch up with the Polish colour-ringed Black-headed Gull White TETT, originally seen in Guernsey last week by Vic and Jill Froome. All in all a very worthwhile trip to the beach this morning!

Jaonneusse Beach, Guernsey 

LBBG Black 5AC3 (back from Portugal)



More LBBGs back in Guernsey and another Polish Black-headed Gull

It was another very rewarding early morning in the north of the Island today, with 3 more returning colour ringed Lesser Black-backed Gulls seen at Chouet - Black 2.X5 and Black 2.N2  had both been recorded this winter in Portugal and Spain respectively, while Black 7F2 had been seen in Le Tanchet, Les Sables d'Olonne, Vendée, France last November.  Also recorded at Chouet were c 150 of my locally colour ringed Herring Gulls - no doubt some of these will have been reported from France this past winter.
At Rousse Beach, Vale the Polish Black-headed Gull White TARM was seen again - a gull ringed at Przykona Reservoir, Radyczyny, Turek, Poland, and which has been reported in Guernsey in the autumns of 2010 and 2011.

Black-headed Gull White TARM (photo from August 2011)

LBBG Black 2.N2 Huelva Spain - August 2011 José Mendez

LBBG Black 2.X5 Chouet (2011)



Polish Black-headed Gulls in Guernsey

During the week Vic and Jill Froome found and photographed Black-headed Gull White TETT at Jaonneusse Beach, Vale, Guernsey. This gull was ringed as a chick in June 2011 at Przykona Reservoir, Radyczyny, Turek, Poland. It had already been seen at Le Rozel Beach, Manche, France in late August 2011 by Lucien Brinkhof. While out looking for this bird, I finally managed to find a flock of 100 Black-headed Gulls at Grande Havre. Amongst these birds was a Polish metal ringed bird, but I only managed to read the address and part of the number – Gdansk FN..807. The probability is that this is the same bird that I’ve seen in Guernsey in each of the last two early autumns (FN75.807 – ringed as a chick in May 2008 at Januszkowice, Zdzieszowice, Opolski, Poland ), but I need to see the whole number to be sure.

Black-headed Gull White TETT Jaonneusse Beach 02 February 2012 - Vic Froome



The return of another LBBG

There were still less than eight LBBGs at Chouet this morning ( a very similar number to this time last year), but amongst them was the third colour ringed bird to be recorded back in the islands this year – Black 0AA2. Ringed as an adult male on 20 May 2011 at Chouet, this gull was recorded three times in Guernsey last summer up to 12 July. It was not recorded at all over the winter…so its wintering area remains unknown.

LBBG Black 0AA2 Chouet Landfill Beach 30 January 2012 - PKV



Glaucous Gull in the Garden...but no gulls ringed!

Chris Mourant and I had another attempt to colour ring some Herring Gulls in the garden today, but the weather was not as cold as forecast and the gulls showed remarkably little interest in the food put out for them. The highlight of the morning was a Glaucous Gull which circled over the garden and took a look at the bait, but unfortunately this northern visitor did not land! It is possible that this is the gull which Richard Keen reported landing on his fishing boat two days running last week as he entered St Peter Port Harbour.

Another Huge Session at Chouet for Colour Ringed Herring Gulls

With high tide early in the morning today, there were several thousand Herring Gulls feeding and resting within Chouet landfill. A really enjoyable 90 minutes saw me record another 170+ locally ringed Herring Gulls, as well as Blue EXT a well-known bird which had been ringed originally as as adult bird in January 2010 at Stoke Orchard Landfill, Glocs, England. There were only two (unringed) LBBGs at the landfill this morning (perhaps the cooler weather is suppressing the return of the early birds?). Seven cr GBBGs were recorded, including three well-known French birds and one from Les Ecrehous, Jersey.

Chouet Landfill 29 January 2012 

Herring Gull Blue EXT (and White 1CM1)