Another Yellow-legged Gull

A short trip to the beaches this morning was rewarded with the sighting of another adult Yellow-legged Gull. Given the regularity of adults at this time of  year we must also have some juvenile birds...but I am really struggling to pick them out from the plentiful juvenile Herring Gulls!

 Adult Yellow-legged Gull Chouet Landfill Beach 10 August 2012 (c) PKV

Golden Gulls

The flock of a thousand gulls were glowing gold in the gorgeous sunrise this morning at Pembroke. Amongst the flock were several juvenile colour ringed Herring Gulls from Guernsey, Lihou, Jethou and Sark, while on Chouet Landfill Beach one of only three Lesser Black-backed Gull chicks (Black 9AN0)  ringed this year on Lihou Island was resting on the beach.

While many of the breeding adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls are still in the Islands, an increasing number are now departing on their autumn migrations. The latest report was of seven Guernsey-colour ringed LBBGs reported by José Tavares feeding on fish discards on the same beach at Torreira, Aveiro, Portugal.  Over the next few weeks many more of the Guernsey birds will be heading south for Iberia and beyond for the winter.

First French cr Great Black-backed Gull Juvenile of the Season

Today's early morning highlight was the first French-ringed juvenile Great Black-backed Gull on Pembroke Beach. This is one of 80 chicks ringed in 2012 on Chausey Islands, Manche, France as part of Sebastien Provost's research project. It was on the beach with another of my own 2012 cr juveniles Yellow 1.HH7 (from Vale, Guernsey).

GBBG Green L73 from Chausey, France (c) PKV

Sunrise at Pembroke

There were more than a thousand gulls on Pembroke Beach soon after sunrise yesterday morning. The vast majority were Herring Gulls, but with a scattering of Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Great Black-backed Gulls. On this beach and on Chouet Landfill Beach another 100+ gull colour ring readings were taken – with the highlights both being GBBGs – my first 2012 colour-ringed chick of the year – Yellow 1.HH6 from Vale, Guernsey and Green E.71 a well-known visitor ringed as a chick on Chausey Islands, Manche, France in July 2009. This gull has been seen in Guernsey on many occasions in each subsequent year, but was last recorded in January 2012.

Recently I saw Mediterranean Gull White 3E90 (ringed in Belgium) back at its usual autumn roosting site at Bellegreve Bay (the 7^th consecutive autumn that this gull has been see in Guernsey). This year the bird was first reported by Mike Cunningham on 18 July 2012, when he took a very nice photos of the bird (below).

 Mediterranean Gull White 3E90 Grande Havre, Guernsey 18 July 2012 (c) Mike Cunningham

 Sunrise at Pembroke

 Chouet Landfill Beach

 GBBG Yellow 1.HH6 Pembroke

The Beaches are Turning into Gull Crèches!

It is fantastic at the moment to go to Pembroke or Chouet beaches for many juvenile gulls (Herring and Lesser Black-backed) are to be found playing at the edge of the sea…picking at anything floating or being tossed in on the waves. So far I’ve spotted 13 of our colour ringed juvenile Herring Gulls (from Jethou and Lihou Islands) and four Lesser Black-backed Gulls (all from Sark). The Alderney gulls are usually a couple of weeks later in their breeding…so hopefully they will begin to turn up here too very shortly!

Guernsey Gulls in France

Perhaps not surprisingly we are now receiving several reports of our colour ringed Herring Gulls summering in nearby towns along the adjacent French coast. Two such reports this weekend involved Herring Gulls White 4CP5 and metal ring E16633 both seen and photographed by Guillaume Chevrier at Saint Servan-sur-Mer, near St Malo and also White 1.AN4 reported from Cherbourg by Sophie Rivrins. I expect these are birds which were born and raised in France, which were visiting Guernsey when ringed.

 Herring Gull White 1.AN4 Cherbourg, Manche, France (c) Sophie Rivrins