A Great Day's Gulling!

Catherine, Phil Alexander and I enjoyed a superb day ringing gull chicks on Jethou yesterday. Productivity amongst the Great Black-backed Gulls (26 chicks ringed) and Herring Gulls (81 chicks ringed) was the best I’ve seen for many years. It was also a well-timed visit with most of the chicks being the ideal age for ringing. With so much effort going into the gull ringing, we only ringed a few Shags. Once again I found it difficult to assess the breeding season for Shag, as our visit was really too late for this species. There were still some youngsters in nests, but many nests were empty (showing signs of successful use), but there were few fledged Shags around the island (but lots of adults in gatherings on the rocks with very few first year birds amongst them). Puffin numbers looked strong with rafts of 14  birds off the south-west and 13 off the traditional Puffin gulley on the north coast. Our thanks to Dr Ogden again for his interest and support in our seabird monitoring work.

LBBG Chick Back from Morocco

A very quick 20 minutes watch at Chouet landfill Beach this morning gave a reasonable collection of colour ring reads from LBBGs and Herring Gulls. Pride of place went to LBBG Black 6.A7 a bird ringed as a chick on Burhou in July 2010, and which was seen at Kenitra, MOROCCO over 1,750 km away in January 2011. Although I've recorded a number of LBBGs back in Guernsey, following sightings in Morocco, this is the first GuernseyGulls colour-ringed chick to be seen in Africa, which has now been recorded back home!

Movements of LBBG Black 6.A7 

LBBG Black 0AVO at CLB (c) PKV

First Gull Chicks of the Season Ringed

Yesterday, my son Merlin and I went over to Sark to monitor the breeding gulls.The weather picked up quickly from early morning mist to a wonderful sunny day with a gentle breeze - perfect for landing at several of the small gull colonies scattered around the island's cliff coastline. The overall number of breeding gulls for all three species seemed a little down again (subjective not objective assessment), but productivity of the Herring Gulls looked reasonable..although the season is perhaps seven to ten days later than "average". We ringed 26 Herring Gull and two Great Black-backed Gulls in what was a thoroughly enjoyable day's work. Our thanks once again to Andy Cook for his expert seamanship to enable us to obtain this data.

The Garden Comes Good

This morning Chris, Phil and I took a small gull catch in the garden, which comprised 11 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (inc three re-traps) and five Herring Gulls (inc three re-traps). This is the highest ratio of LBBG:HG ever achieved in the garden!

A Difficult but Successful Visit to Burhou, Alderney

I’m just back from a couple of days on Burhou, continuing the study of breeding Lesser Black-backed Gulls breeding on the Islands’ largest colony (c 1,000 pairs). The weather was difficult with cool easterly winds and drizzle cutting short the fieldwork, but we did manage to colour ring another 31 new birds, while also re-trapping four caught previously (three on Burhou and one from Chouet landfill).

I also took the opportunity to record 43 colour-ringed LBBGs on the islet, along with six Herring Gulls. It was particularly pleasing to record ten birds which had been ringed as chicks on the islet in 2009, 2010 and even one from 2011 (a year of virtual complete breeding failure for the gulls). Other surprises were an adult LBBG nesting on the island, which had been ringed in winter in Portugal, and a 2^nd calendar year LBBG ringed at Vest-Agder, southern Norway, and which had been seen migrating back through northern Portugal one week earlier .

This year I am very excited that Vicky Warwick-Evans, who is undertaking a PhD on aspects of the ecology of Northern Gannets and European Shags nesting around Alderney, has extended the work to LBBGs. We trapped ten adults known to be breeding on the island, and fitted them with very small data loggers which will record their positions for five days or so. In this way we hope to learn where the gulls from this very important seabird colony feed. However, to do this we have to be able to recover the tags in a week or so, before they simply fall off and are lost (along with their valuable data).

Gulls Love Seaweed!

Mick Dryden and Tony Paintin in Jersey both regularly report Guernsey colour-ringed Herring Gulls in Jersey, demonstrating how frequently many birds presumed nesting or born in Jersey visit Chouet Landfill. Today Mick set a new record for a single day with reports of 20 different cr Herring Gulls at Le Pulec on Jersey's North-west coast. From Mick's photo below you can see the attraction - a very nice pile of seaweed, driven ashore by the strong winds, which no doubt is providing some excellent feeding conditions.

 Gulls feeding at Le Pulec, Jersey 09 June 2013 (c) Mick Dryden

 Herring Gull White 0HC1 at Le Pulec (with White 4FL9) at Le Pulec 09 June 2013 (c) Mick Dryden

Lesser Black-backed Gull Black 7AU8 passing Grosnez Point, Jersey on 08 June 2013 (c) Mick Dryden

Yellow-legged Gull returns to Chouet

The highlight of two hours gull recording at Chouet landfill today was the observation of Yellow-legged Gull White 1CA9. Ringed as a full adult bird in May 2011, this gull has now been recorded eight times at Chouet - in February, March, April and August 2012, and so far in 2013 in February, March and June. It does seem highly likely that this michahellis is nesting in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, but probably in a mixed pair. Perhaps one day we'll find out for sure.

Other highlights today were more than  100 colour-ringed Lesser Black-backed Gulls and slightly less Herring Gulls.

Blustery Day Trip to Alderney Recording Cr Gulls

Our attempt to colour ring some adult LBBGs on Burhou today was thwarted by strong winds and very lively seas, making landing impossible. Nevertheless I took the opportunity to visit Crabby Beach over several hours to record some of the colour ringed gulls which settle on the beach to preen and rest after bathing in the fresh water quarry adjacent to the beach. It was wonderful to record 31 cr LBBGs and seven cr Herring Gulls. Many of the LBBGs had been ringed as chicks on Burhou in 2009 and 2010, and almost all have interesting life histories involving sightings abroad. The majority of the other gulls had been ringed as adults on Burhou, although there were also several LBBGs and Herring Gulls that had been ringed at Chouet Landfill in Guernsey.

Gulls on Crabby Beach, Alderney (c) PKV

LBBG Black 0.A9 - A Special Sighting!

Tim Morley, the AWT Ecologist for 2013, has just let me know that LBBG Black 0.A9 is nesting near the hut on Burhou this year. What makes this report special is that this gull was ringed as a chick on Burhou in July 2009. We now know that this gull is nesting back on its natal colony - in fact it is nesting within 50 metres of its natal site! Such observations are particularly valuable  to our gull research. Black 0.A9 was recorded in its first winter at Portimao, Portugal. Also on Burhou this summer is LBBG Black 4.H7 - a chick ringed in the colonies on Sark in 2010. This bird is still a year from maturity...so we will have to wait until next year to try to learn whether it is breeding on Burhou or back in Sark.

 LBBG Black 0.A9 Burhou - July 2009 (c) PKV

 LBBG Black 0.A9 Portimao, Portugal - December 2009 (c) Morten Helberg

LBBG Black 0.A9 Burhou 31 May 2013 (c) Tim Morley