A Very Good Morning at Chouet with Dave Murray

On Saturday morning Dave Murray and I enjoyed a superb gull spectacle at Chouet landfill. Many thanks (as ever) to Mel on site for getting us into an excellent position both to read rings and also photograph gulls! With Dave behind the camera, I focused entirely on ring reading. In several hours we notched up more than 250 ring reads between us (roughly evenly split between LBBGs and Herring Gulls with a few GBBGs for good measure! It was a really fantastic gull experience. Below is a selection of Dave's excellent photos to remind us of another wonderful session in the landfill!

All Photos (c) Dave Murray

At Almost 24 Years- E4141 is one of my Oldest Gulls

This morning on Chouet Landfill Beach I read metal ring Jersey  E4141 on an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull. Incredibly I ringed this bird as a chick on Sark in July 1989 - almost 24 years ago. While there is no doubt that this is a good age for a gull, this is not a longevity record for the species - a LBBG ringed as a chick in a colony in Cumbria was killed in the same colony when it was nearly 35 years old. Let's hope there's some life left in E4141 yet! 

LBBG E4141 (metal ring only) possibly with Black 9N5 Chouet Landfill Beach (c) PKV 

More Sex on the Beaches

There was plenty of courtship and mating taking place with both Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gulls again this morning on the beaches. This can be particularly valuable to observe as it enables me to identify a few pairs in which both birds are colour ringed.  One such pair this morning was LBBG Black 3AK5 (male) and Black 9AF3 (female). Both were ringed in May 2012 at Chouet Landfill and both birds were recorded separately in France last autumn/winter: Black 3AK5 in Vendée in October and Black 9AF3 at Deux-Sevres in December. The mating also confirmed that the birds were correctly sexed on head and bill length when ringed.

LBBGs Black 3AK5 and 9AF3 mating at Chouet (c) PKV

Another 100 LBBGs Colour Rings Before Work

After several days without being able to find the time to read any rings, I enjoyed a very relaxing 75 minutes before work this morning reading gull colour rings on the beaches at Chouet. I noted rings on just over 100 LBBGs, as well as 36 Herring Gulls and a couple of GBBGs. Quite a few gulls are still courting on the beaches, but it is very noticeable how the LBBGs are lingering longer on the beaches than the Herring Gulls. The former are usually several weeks later nesting than the latter, and most of the Herring Gulls are now keen to get back to their nesting sites once they’ve fed at Chouet and bathed on the nearby beaches.

Gull Study Gets Even More Interesting

Now that we have been colour ringing gull chicks for five summers, the Bailiwick gull studies are entering another new and exciting phase, as we get ever increasing numbers of summer sightings of birds that are approaching breeding age. While the majority of such reports come from the Channel Islands, we are also receiving news from further afield. A good example is a report received recently from Sam Baxter of LBBG Black 5.P8. This gull was ringed as a chick on Burhou in July 2010. Having been recorded in Spain and Portugal during its first two winters, it is now in Pembrokeshire, Wales. We do not yet know whether this 3rd summer gull is prospecting a nesting site in Wales or just wandering ...eventually to return to breed in its natal colony. Hopefully future sightings of this, and other such immature gulls, will help us to gain a much better understanding of the migration and dispersal of our Channel Islands gulls.

 LBBG Black 5.P8 Doninos Beach, A Coruna, Spain 12 August 2011 (c) Paco Veiga

The Movements of LBBG Black 5.P8

When is a yellow-legged Gull not a Yellow-legged Gull?

Answer = When it is a Herring Gull with yellow legs! I don't know if this is a Guernsey phenomenon, but when I began my gull studies here in 2008, I was regularly confused by apparent "Herring Gulls" which have yellow legs (even bright yellow). This is most obvious in the summer, when leg colouration intensifies with the breeding season. I've always been cautious to identify true Yellow legged Gulls (i.e. Larus michahellis) because of the presence of these yellow-legged argentatus. However, I've now seen several michahellis in the hand and also some of the peculiar argentatus. One such bird in White 6.UU3 (originally ringed in May 2010 in our garden, and now seen c 20 times in Guernsey including today at Chouet Landfill). The photos below show just how yellow the legs can be...but note the normal pale mantle of argentatus and also the orange (not red) orbital ring.

I do not know if these yellow-legged pale mantled birds are hybrids, and if so what has crossed with argentatus, - presumably mostly fuscus, but perhaps michahellis?

Adult Yellow-legged Gulls tend to stand out in Guernsey because they are always seen in the presence of Herring Gulls. The mantle is so dark that it is almost always the factor which draws attention to the gull. Then you notice the (normally) bright yellow legs and the red orbital ring. Often it is also possible to see the larger red spot on the bill. 2nd and 3rd Winter michahellis are also fairly easy to identify in Guernsey (showing most of the above distinguishing marks)...but we are not making a very good job of identifying juvenile and 1st winter michahellis. They must be scarce, but present in small numbers every year,...but it it remains a gaping hole in our ornithological knowledge on Guernsey at the moment. Sooner or later someone is going to master their identification here! 

 All above photos are Herring Gull (Larus argentatus)White 6.UU3

 Herring Gull 6.UU3 when ringed in May 2010

Herring Gull 6.UU3 in February 2012 (note much paler legs)

Below all Yellow-legged Gulls (Larus michahellis)

 Herring Gull on left Yellow-legged Gull on right (note darker mantle)

Return of the Youngsters

I really like this time of year (for lots of reasons)...but one of the many gull highlights is the growing number of immature gulls which turn up at Chouet. Unsurprisingly it is the adult gulls that are keenest to get back to their nesting grounds each early spring, but by mid-late April the number of youngsters noticeably increases. One such LBBG is Black 0.H4 ringed as a chick on Burhou in July 2009, and recorded in Iberia in  the winters of 2010 and 2012 Today it was on Chouet Landfill Beach. It will no doubt return this summer to its natal colony.It is strange because there are now lots of 3rd calendar year LBBGs on the beaches, but none so far with rings, as 2011 was the year in which our LBBGs had a near total breeding failure in all the colonies.

 LBBG Black 0.H4 at Chouet 23 June 2012 (c) PKV

LBBG Black 0.H4 at Quarteira, Portugal 25 November 2012 (c) Michael Davis

LBBG Black 0.H4 Chouet 26 April 2013 (c) PKV