LBBG Juvenile from Gloucester, England

Today's gulling highlight was not from the Island's west coast, where the LBBG flocks seemed rather unchanged from recent days. Instead "bird of the day" was LBBG Black A+N. This bird had been ringed as a chick by Peter Rock in Gloucester, England in June 2012, and seen three days ago at Crabby Bay, Alderney by James Allison (the AWT 2012 Ecologist). It was on Pembroke Beach early today (in one of the photos below the gull is present in the small flock in the foreground, while Alderney can be seen in the background.

Welsh LBBG Returns to L'Eree

The LBBG flock at L'Eree appears to have seen little movement in recent days, with 45 cr readings being taken - all local birds except Orange 9V from The Netherlands and a British-metal ringed adult - London GN85760 - a bird ringed as a chick on Skomer Island, Dyfed, Wales in July 2005, and seen on passage through Guernsey on L'Eree Beach on 22 September 2010 (another example of site fidelity by LBBGs on migration). Other highlights included an adult Yellow-legged Gull and two 2nd calendar year GBBGs from Chausey islands, France (Green K.63 and K.72). Finally Mike Cunningham recorded and photographed (very nicely) Black-headed Gull yellow EHSL (from Antwerp) at Vazon this morning.

 Black-headed Gull (c) Mike Cunningham

Gulls on the High Tide

It was always going to be a difficult pre-work session down the west coast this morning, because of the high tide, pushing the gulls off the beach. However, it was just about workable, and a nice flock of c. 400 LBBGs (few juveniles) was well observed. In this flock were 40+ of our colour ringed birds, along with Orange 9V – the Dutch bird from Moerdijk which appears each autumn on the Island’s west coast. There were very few GBBGs in the flock (c 20), but amongst them were two French birds (one from Chausey – Green K.72 and one from Le Havre – Blue 91D), and two Guernsey birds – Yellow 0.NN1 and Yellow 0L8.

Yet another adult Yellow-legged Gull was located in this flock!

The Guernsey Pelagic

Today a dozen birders went out with Richard Keen on a pelagic seabird trip 10 miles or so NW of Guernsey. It was a very enjoyable day, although both highlights were of the non-avian variety. Firstly a very obliging Sunfish drifting lazily past the boat (with attendant gulls pecking parasites from its skin), and then a small pod of 6-10 Common Dolphins, which came bow-riding albeit briefly, before speeding on their journey.

Birding highlights included 20+ Great Skuas, an Arctic Skua and a possible Pomarine Skua (well that's what Chris Mourant and me thought anyway!), as well as 10+ Sooty Shearwaters and a couple of Balearic Shearwaters and c 30 European Storm-Petrels, as well as an Arctic Tern. I was also pleased to see gulls out in their pelagic environment!

Sunfish (with attendant gulls)

Herring Gulls in Profusion!

With high tide at dawn there was very little beach for the gulls to rest on, so after a quick trip down the west coast, I spent an an hour and a half at Chouet Landfill. In that time I recorded c 150 of my cr gulls - all Herring Gulls, except one Lesser Black-backed Gull (from only 15-20 birds seen) and a couple of Great Black-backed Gulls. There was one very obliging adult Yellow-legged Gull giving very close views.

 Yellow-legged Gull

First Juvenile GBBGs from Le Havre, Seine-Maritime and Portland, Dorset

Despite the blustery conditions this morning, combined with high tide, I was fortunate enough to be able to check c 600 LBBGs along the west coast, locating 36 of my colour-ringed birds. Amongst a very much smaller number of GBBGs (c 100) were my first juveniles of the autumn from Le Havre, Seine-Maritime (Black 92K) and also my first ever GBBG from the new project established in Portland Harbour this summer (White P:37A). Finally, after much searching (and tipped off yesterday by Jamie Hooper – cheers!) I finally managed to see Black-headed Gull Yellow EHSL ringed as a chick near Antwerp, Belgium this summer. So all in all – a very rewarding gull session today! It was interesting to see at least two parties of LBBG fledglings still begging from their very frustrated parents on the beaches this morning.

 Black-headed Gull Yellow EHSL

 LBBG Black 0.F6 L'Eree

 L'Eree Gull Flock

LBBG Fledglings Still Begging from Adult L'Eree