Anza, Morocco – One of the Greatest Gull Shows on Earth!

I’ve just returned from a week in Agadir, Morocco. Although a holiday, it was not a coincidence that the legendary “Anza” just happens to be a stone’s throw from Agadir. I was fortunate enough to visit Anza two years ago, when the sight of so many gulls feeding on fish waste was truly incredible – perhaps as many as 30,000 Lesser Black-backed Gulls were on the beach on some days! This time I was even more awe-struck by the sheer volume of birds, and the incredible views that can be obtained. Of course I was there to try to see colour-ringed gulls, especially from Guernsey! I was not to be disappointed with seven different Guernsey LBBGs! Over the week I took hundreds of LBBG cr observations, mostly from Norway, The Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium, but birds were seen from 11 different European countries. Although numbers of small gulls were very modest I also recorded Mediterranean Gulls from Poland, Hungary and France and Black-headed Gulls from Spain. It will be some days before I am able to complete the spreadsheet of sightings and send them to the relevant project leaders. I will then post a summary of the sightings in another blog. Until then I recommend a visit to the Urban Gulls in Bergen Blog of Christian Pedersen and Arild Breistøl, as they were both at Anza the week or so before me. A summary of their staggeringly successful trip has just been posted on their web site http://urbanringing.blogspot.com/ .

Three "Guernsey" Lesser Black-backed Gulls Wintering in Gran Canaria

Recently we've had news from Gran Canaria of three Guernsey-ringed LBBGs that are wintering in the Canary Islands - all on Gran Canaria. Black 9K5 was recorded there last winter, and it returned this summer to Guernsey. Joining it this winter are Black 9V0 and Black 8AH8. The straight line distance between the ringing and wintering site is more than 2,600 km (see map below). I am very grateful to Francisco and Javier del Campo and Xabier Remirez for these wonderful sightings!

 LBBG Black 9V0 Las Palma Harbour, Gran Canaria - (c) Xabier Remirez

LBBG Black 9K5 Boccabaranco, Gran Canaria (c) Xabier Remirez

A Winter's Day's Gull Catch

Part of the Guernsey Gulls Team made a  very nice catch of Herring Gulls in the garden today. I haven't had a chance to analyse the data yet...but once again there was a high proportion of 1st winter birds. We are sure that Guernsey hosts many more immature gulls each winter than have been reared around the Islands. This is probably mainly due to Chouet Landfill, which provides a reliable major food supply. Today Chris's son, Owen, came along to help - and as can be seen below he is learning young how to handle large gulls!

Owen with Herring Gull White 6HA5

Chouet Delivers Again!

This morning I enjoyed a very leisurely and enjoyable session at Chouet Landfill, recording c 170 of our locally-ringed Herring Gulls, along with eight Great Black-backed Gulls (including three French birds). Once again no Lesser Black-backed Gulls were recorded today.

Black 8AN7 was ringed as a 1st summer hybrid Herring Gull x ? in July 2012. 

Some Interesting LBBG Movements

Hot on the heels of LBBG Black 4AL4, Pepe Greno has observed two more "Guernsey Gulls" at Castellon Harbour, Spain. As reported in this blog on 13 November such movements to the Mediterranean coast of Spain are unusual for our LBBGs. None of the three gulls has records in Guernsey during the summer (after ringing in late May) so we are speculating that these birds may be from a different population, which were migrating through Guernsey when ringed. Hopefully in the years ahead we will learn far more in relation to the movements of the gulls observed in Guernsey! I also include a very nice photo Pepe sent me of a Ring-billed Gull (which is known from a number of sightings in Guernsey) amongst Audouins Gulls (which we have not yet recorded!).

 LBBG Black 4AK7 Castellon harbour (c) Pepe Greno

 LBBG Black 6AM2 Castellon Harbour (c) Pepe Greno

The track of three Guernsey ringed LBBGs to Castellon Harbour

Ring-billed and Audouins Gulls at castellon harbour, Spain 02 April 2012 - (c) Pepe Greno

Also of great excitement is the report of the first of this year's 2012 LBBG chicks at the gull hotspot of Anza. Agadir. Black 4AP5 (ringed on Burhou on 14 July 2012) was observed in Morocco yesterday by two Norwegian Gull enthusiasts (Christian Pedersen and Arild Breistol) who are doing a fantastic job recording colour ringed gulls at Anza this week. Take a look at their superb blog for an account of the first three days!

http://urbanringing.blogspot.com/

An Excellent Morning at Chouet Landfill

With a large spring tide early this morning, there was every chance that gull watching at Chouet landfill would be excellent today - and so it proved. Although numbers of GBBGs were rather disappointing (c 150 + gulls and only 11 cr birds - all known from previous visits), there were several thousand Herring Gulls. More than 150 ring reads were taken  including Orange AV1*T ( 2nd winter bird ringed by Paul Roper and the North Thames Gull Group on 22 October 2011 at Rainham Landfill, London. Not a single Lesser Black-backed Gull was recorded today!

Two Unusual Gull Movements

It is unusual for Channel Island Herring Gulls to travel as far as northern Spain for the autumn/winter, but a minority of birds regularly makes this journey. One such bird is White 7CJ5 seen today by Raquel Posada and César Álvarez in the Avilés Estuary. Equally unusual are reports of our Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the eastern  (Mediterranean) coast of Spain (above Malaga) - so I was thrilled to learn that Black 4AL4 was at Castellon harbour yesterday (Pepe Greno).

 Herring Gull White 7CJ5

Lesser Black-backed Gull Black 4AL4

Our Black-headed Gull project starts (at last!)

It has taken some time (several years!)...but this morning Chris Mourant, Phil Alexander and I finally got our latest colour ringing gull study airborne by catching a single adult Black-headed Gull at home at Ty Coed! After handling so many large gulls, the delicate nature of this small gull was astounding  It is a very very beautiful bird!

We also managed to ring 65 new Herring Gulls - almost all immatures (49 1st winters and six 2nd winters).It was excellent to see so many young gulls in the catch. We believe that many of the immature Herring Gulls on Guernsey each autumn/winter are birds from the English Channel coasts of northern France and southern England, but we have caught very few since commencing our colour ringing studies...so hopefully this hypothesis will be well tested in the years ahead. The attraction of course is Chouet landfill, which acts as a super magnet for gulls, and must be a major contributing factor to the survival rates of immature gulls in winter.

The Class of 2012

I always enjoy seeing photographs from observers of our young Lesser Black-backed Gulls as they develop their plumages, so I thought I'd put a few photos on the blog of some of the "Class of 2012".

9AP9 in Portugal

 0AP1 in Portugal

 0AP2 L'Eree Guernsey

 1AP6 west coast of Spain

 1AS8 Algarve, Potugal 

 3AS1 Portugal