German LBBG at Chouet and a Small Gull Catch

After all the work that Chris, Phil and I have put in recently to try to keep ticking over colour ringing gulls, it was rewarding on Saturday to take even a small catch of 14 gulls (13 Herring and one GBBG). It was a very modest catch...but enough to help us keep the faith!

While at the landfill we also recorded lots of colour ringed gulls - I mainly focused again on the returning LBBGs, with another 100 or so rings read. Amongst the local birds was a German ringed LBBG (only the 3rd German bird I've recorded in Guernsey in the past five years)!

Gulls at Chouet on Saturday 22 March 2013 (c) PKV

The Benefits of a Rainy Day

Although viewing conditions aren't great in the rain, the big advantage is that there are many fewer dog walkers on the beaches, so the birds are far less disturbed. That didn't stop a couple of scramble motor bikes driving through the gull flock on one beach....but with some patience a very good tally of colour ring readings were taken in a few hours - Lesser Black-backed Gull (141), Herring Gull (92) and Great Black-backed Gull (four).

Gulls on Chouet Beach (unfortunately there is no "photo-editor" in the field to brighten up the view to make ring reading easier!

Two Gulls in their 20th Years!

At Chouet landfill Beach this morning I read two metal rings - Lesser Black-backed Gull  E5629 and Great Black-backed Gull E5508. I had ringed both gulls as chicks in June 1993 (the former on Sark and the latter on Herm). It was quite a coincidence that both these old gulls were in their 20th years - hopefully they've raised a good number of chicks between them in the intervening years!

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Another British LBBG at Chouet, amidst strong return passage of Gulls

The highlight of a couple of hours in rainy conditions at Chouet this morning was LBBG Black W8ZC , which is a bird ringed by Dave Sowter at Walney Island, Lancashire. More than 130 colour rings were recorded on LBBGs yesterday morning and another 60 today, so the arrivals remain very strong. The Norwegian Great Black-backed Gull (Black JP719) ringed as a chick in Vest-Agder last summer is still being seen at Chouet (yesterday and today). Also today Yellow-legged Gull White 1CA9 (ringed at Chouet in 2011) was back on the beach at Chouet.

 LBBG Black W8ZC at Chouet (c) PKV

 GBBG Black JP719 ta Chouet (c) PKV

Gulls on Chouet Landfill Beach 20 March 2013 (c) PKV

English Herring Gull

A quick, but effective, early morning session at the beaches on the north coast this morning resulted in another 59 ring reads on Lesser Black-backed Gulls. The main surprise today was the return of Herring Gull Orange AV1.T - which was ringed as a 1st year on 22/10/2011 at Rainham Landfill, Greater London by the North Thames Gull Group. I first saw this gull in Guernsey on 03 and 17 November, but it has not been seen here again until this morning.

Herring Gull Orange AV1.T at Chouet Landfill Beach - 17/03/2013 (c) PKV

Double Century of LBBG Sightings at Chouet

Despite the cold and windy weather the LBBGs have been pouring back into Guernsey these past few days. This is evidenced by the fact that during the past three mornings I've recorded 211 observations of cr LBBGs at Chouet. Of course some are repeat sightings...but the total includes many birds seen for the first time this spring.

After a month or so of quite difficult observation conditions at the landfill, it is coming good at just the right time, with some incredibly close and enjoyable views of the gulls as they feed. A very big thank you to the landfill staff who help me enormously with the gull studies. Without their fantastic co-operation we would simply not be getting the quality data that is building almost by the day!

Gulls at Chouet landfill these past three days (c) PKV

Great Cormorant to Somerset, England

When I got back from this morning's unsuccessful attempt to ring gulls at Chouet with Chris, I picked up an -e-mail from Chris Gladman reporting only our 2nd colour-ringed Great Cormorant sighting outside the Islands. This bird was seen and photographed at Wimbleball Lake, Exmoor National Park, England on 13 March 2013. It had been ringed as a chick in Herm on 2nd May 2012.

 Great Cormorant Black BK at Wimbleball Lake 13 March 2013 (c) Chris Gladman

Movement of Great Cormorant Black BK

Winter Wonderland!

Guernsey has just been blasted with two days of snow blizzards – the worst since 1979. Goodness knows what the returning LBBGs think of this weather, having spent the past few months in the much warmer climes of Iberia and NW Africa! Hopefully I’ll get back to Chouet soon to see what changes have occurred in the past few days. Until then – a few rather unseasonal photos below from our garden!

My Folk's garden!

Herring Gull Falling From the Sky!

Chris, Mich and I saw something very odd today at Chouet landfill - an immature Herring Gull (White 5FM3 - ringed last December)...quite literally fell out of the sky in front of us. We happened to be watching as a flock of gulls flew over, when this immature bird just stopped flying and fell like a stone to the ground. On the ground it flapped around, but had clearly lost control of its wings. Chris retrieved the gull and we put it in a large gull bag in the quiet for 40 minutes or so. After that we peered in and extracted the gull, which seemed alert again...so we put it on the ground and ...it took a short run up and was airborne again...having regained all its control. It was an amazing thing to see. We were of course very happy that the gull recovered.

The most likely cause - well the gull flock had taken to the air in panic...and we think a Peregrine came through the flock and struck this bird - enough to partially stun it, but not to kill it outright.

As to the rest of our three hour morning - despite absolutely fantastic help from the landfill staff, and several very close calls...we failed to catch any gulls yet again. However...we really do think now that the odds will very shortly swing back in our favour and our spring/summer season will commence.
An odd looking immature gull caused some excitement but despite being very different in jizz, and in structure and plumage it is almost certainly an oddish Herring Gull (see below). It really stood out from the crowd!

LBBGs from Spain and England

A very enjoyable couple of hours at Chouet Landfill this morning resulted in c 50 LBBG colour ring reads, which included Orange T121 from Salamanca, Western Spain (ringed on 23 December 2012). This may well be a Guernsey nesting gull as it was in early courtship this morning.  Red RAB, originally ringed at Orfordness, Suffolk, England as a chick in 2005, was also present. This gull has previous sightings in Gloucestershire  Leicestershire and at Tan-Tan Beach, Morocco.

 LBBG Orange T121 from Salamanca, Spain

LBBG Red RAB from Orfordness, England

Black-headed Gulls in Chester

Given our spectacular lack of success this past winter with our colour ringing project for Black-headed Gulls, which are uncannily wary and difficult to catch in Guernsey, Dave Murray sent me some photos of his local birds in Chester, England. Dave regularly records  not just colour ringed birds  from The Netherlands, France, Poland and Norway, but he also reads and photographs metal rings (which are really hard to see in the field). It just shows how tame his birds are. His selection of colour and metal ring reads this winter involves birds from Lithuania, Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands and France!We are very envious!

Black-headed Gulls and Common Gull, Chester, England - (c) Dave Murray



70 Colour-Ringed LBBGs at Chouet

This morning at Chouet landfill was just like old times, with a tremendous amount of gull activity. Although the wind was still quite strong , the gulls were far more settled today, enabling me to read 70 of my colour ringed LBBGs - many for the first time this season after spending the autumn/winter in Iberia.