GuernseyGulls Presents to GSPCA Staff

Earlier in the week, GuernseyGulls was very pleased to give a short presentation on its gull research work to the staff of the Guernsey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (GSPCA). Every year the GSPCA handles around 50 gulls with various sicknesses or injuries. After care and treatment many of these gulls are rehabilitated and are able to be released back in to the wild. For several years gulls have been colour ringed before release to determine survival rates. It is very pleasing to report that through this work we know that many rehabilitated gulls are able to resume their lives normally and we have several examples of birds that have even managed to complete migrations to and from Portugal or France following release after care and treatment.

The GSPCA report on this visit can be found on the Society's excellent web site:- 

http://www.gspca.org.gg/blog/gull-training-gspca-staff-and-volunteers-thank-you-paul-veron

Gulls Ringed and Ready for Release at GSPCA

25 Small Gulls = 4 Foreign Colour Rings (Plus Two Metal Onlys)

With a headline like that...you just know that I must be talking about Mediterranean Gulls! Today I visited Bellegreve Bay to see if the regular late summer passage migrant Mediterranean Gull White 3E90 (ringed at Zandvlietsluis, Antwerp, Belgium is back for its 7th consecutive late summer in Guernsey. It is!

However...amongst the ten Mediterranean Gulls seen at Bellegreve Bay, there were two more colour-ringed birds - a Juvenile Green RN09 (presumably from Pas-de-Calias, France) and White E898 (A 2nd year bird from either Belgium or The Netherlands). Incredibly two more of the Mediterranean Gulls were metal ringed only (both on tibias) - so 50% of the Mediterranean Gulls observed were ringed. 

One of the 15 Black-headed Gulls was also colour-ringed - White TARM. This gull was ringed at Pryzkona Reservoir, Turek, Poland as a 2nd year bird in May 2010. It has now been recorded in the four consecutive following autumns/winters in Guernsey!

Arctic Traveller

In early April this year Lesser Black-backed Gull Black JR42 was seen on Chouet Beach. This gull was on passage back to Norway. What made this sighting extra special was the discovery that it is one of the gulls nesting in the far north of Norway, way up in the Arctic Circle on the Island of Loppa in Finnmark. The life history of this gull showed that it had been ringed as a chick in July 2006, and that it is has spent significant parts of intervening winters in Spain. However, until yesterday the gull had not been recorded back at its natal colony. After passing through Guernsey this spring, Black JR42 did return to Loppa, where gull enthusiasts Morten Helberg and Arild Breistol recorded it yesterday.

LBBG Black JR42 on Chouet Beach, Guernsey - April 2013 (c) PKV

The Movements of Black JR42

Young Gulls Invade the Beaches

It's a great time of year. The season's seabird monitoring work is over for another year, so I can just grab the scope again and head for the beaches or landfill early in the mornings - simply to enjoy the gulls...and it's always really good to see the invasion of the beaches by juvenile gulls! Every year I wonder what I did with my time...because hardly any juvenile gulls seem to be colour-ringed! Most of these early juveniles will be Channel Island bred birds...but many nest in inaccessible places. At least I found five cr juvenile Herring Gulls in the hoards of youngsters today. Most of the juveniles are Herring Gulls, but there are also a few Great Black-backed Gulls and today my first Lesser Black-backed Gulls (always very smart...but none with colour rings!).

Gulls at Chouet Landfill Beach (c) PKV

Belgian Visitor

This morning, while checking out my cr gulls at Chouet Landfill Beach, I came across Lesser Black-backed Gull Blue LTA*R - one of the gull's from Eric Stienen's long-running projects based at Zeebrugge, Belgium. More evidence that adult LBBGs are on the move, following the 2013 breeding season. I also checked out the small flocks of Black-headed Gull today on Guernsey's North and West coasts (still less than 100 birds in total)...and no colour rings. Only two Mediterranean Gulls too - a juvenile and 2nd summer bird at Cobo Beach.

 Gulls on Cobo Beach

 Mediterranean Gull - 2nd Summer

Mediterranean Gull - Juvenile

LBBG Blue LTA*R at Chouet landfill Beach (c) PKV

Another Very Nice Morning at Chouet

A couple of hours at Chouet and the northern beaches this morning was well rewarded with another c 250 colour ring reads (mostly Herring Gulls this morning- just to even up my observer bias!). It was really good to see my first three cr juvenile Herring Gulls on the beaches.

Stop Press - The Race is Won!

And so we have this summer's winner in the LBBG race back to Spain. LBBG Black 1AV6 (ringed at Chouet in May 2013) was on Esmelle Beach, A Coruna yesterday. Perhaps as expected this is not a gull of breeding age (being a 3rd calendar year bird)...but we know it was in Guernsey earlier this summer...and that makes it this year's race winner. Many thanks to Paco Veiga for reporting the gull...hopefully the first of many GuernseyGulls to invade the beaches of A Coruna this late summer/autumn! Seb Nedellec has also recently reported a couple of Guernsey colour-ringed LBBGs from Trunvel in Finistere, NW France...so birds are clearly on the move!

Gulls in the Mist

Chouet Landfill was very atmospheric this morning as a sea mist rolled in over the site. It was never thick enough to hamper another really excellent gull watching session. c 200 colour ring reads were taken, the majority once again LBBGs (observer bias not numerical advantage over Herring Gulls!). With the ringing work pretty much over until deep autumn/winter, I'm really enjoying just watching the gulls...observing their post-breeding interactions. Many are now in moult and look rather more bedraggled than they did at the start of the season. I know now to appreciate the LBBGs in particular as it will not be long before their numbers dwindle.