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.

Gull Post-Breeding Dispersal Begins

Right on cue with previous years, we are now receiving reports of both adult Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gulls dispersing  after presumably breeding or attending colonies in the Bailiwick. In the past couple of days Francois Leclerc has reported two LBBGs and three Herring Gulls at a landfill site in Calvados, France (c 170 km distant from Guernsey and therefore outside daily foraging ranges). Interestingly Francois recorded both LBBGs (Black 7N1 and Black 9AJ2) at the same landfill within a few days of the same date in 2012!

Now I am wondering...which of the colour ringed adult LBBGs known to have been in the Channel Islands this summer will win the race to Spain this autumn?!

 (c) Dave Murray

LBBG Black 9AJ2 & HG White 1.DD2 two gulls which are now back in Calvados, France after 2013 breeding season (c) Jean-Claude-Hinet

The End of the 2013 Season Draws Near

The signs of the end of the 2013 gull breeding season are all around now - Black-headed Gulls have returned to the Island in force (firstly adult birds two to three weeks ago, but now juvenile birds as well), along with a scattering of Mediterranean Gulls, the first juvenile Herring Gulls and Great Black-backed Gulls are down on the north coast beaches (17th July), the Lesser Black-backed Gulls are gathering in flocks (perhaps 800 + birds at Chouet Landfill this morning) and the flock of post-breeding Herring Gulls on Pembroke Beach (always a feature of late summer) is growing by the day. It wont be long now before the first adult LBBGs begin their southward migration, and many of the Herring Gulls disperse again until the end of the year.

 Moulting flock on Pembroke Beach 19 July 2013

Gulls at Chouet landfill 20 July 2013

The Stunning Beauty of LBBGs!

The Alderney Wildlife Trust contracted this year with local professional photographer Chris Bale to produce photographs for some of its wide and ever-growing range of promotional and educational material. Chris has endless patience to hide away immobile in full camouflage gear for hours on end to try to obtain shots of birds behaving naturally. His results speak for themselves! Below are a few of his photos of Lesser Black-backed Gulls – some of the best I’ve ever seen anywhere. You can enjoy some more of Chris’ work on his web http://www.guernseybirdnerd.com 

Alternatively if you live in Guernsey you can visit his exhibition at the Guernsey Picture Framers & Art Gallery at the Vale Church Junction. The exhibition opens on 31 July 2013.

(c) Chris Bale

Another Disappointing Breeding Season for LBBGs on Burhou

It is very disappointing to report that once again (just like in 2007, 2008 and 2011), the Channel Islands’ most important colony of Lesser Black-backed Gulls has failed to produce many chicks. Our annual monitoring and ringing trip this year managed to locate and ring just 29 chicks from the 1,200 pairs of LBBGs nesting on Burhou, Alderney. We cannot (yet) be sure of the cause, although it seems most likely that this is an acute shortage of food. Further work is needed to establish the causes. With the annual recruitment into the colony so low in many years, it is difficult to see how the colony is going to sustain itself, and it is perhaps inevitable that within a few years we will see colony declining. On a slightly brighter note Herring Gulls this year on Burhou appear to have nested successfully, and there was also a threefold increase in breeding numbers from five to 15 pairs.

The Greatest Journey Ends Where it Began.

Last weekend, with the help of the Alderney Wildlife Trust, I made my annual visit to Burhou to monitor the breeding success of the Lesser Black-backed Gull colony (c 1,200 pairs).  This is the first of several postings I will make resulting from that visit.

In the main gull colony we found a freshly dead Lesser Black-backed Gull (no sign of predation or oiling or being hooked or caught in fishing line). The bird’s posture indicated that it may have been killed in a territorial fight with another LBBG. Turning the bird over, we saw the colour ring - Black 6.T5. This gull had been ringed as a chick on Burhou in July 2010. It fledged successfully and was recorded at Quarteira Beach in the Algarve, Portugal that October by Michael Davis. Unlike most of our young gulls it did not however stay in Iberia, it continued into Africa and was recorded on 15 February 2012 at Tanji Bird Reserve in The Gambia by Clive Barlow. To date this is the most distant migration of any Lesser Black-backed Gull ringed in the Channel Islands (a straight line distance from Burhou of more than 4,250 km!). Although it is marvellous to know that this young gull did make it all the way back to its natal colony, where it would most likely have first bred this year or more likely next, I am really disappointed that this great traveller is dead.

 LBBG Black 6.T5 Quarteira October 2010 (c) Michael Davis

  LBBG Black 6.T5 in illustrious company at Tanji Bird Reserve, The Gambia February 2012 (c) Clive Barlow 

The ring from LBBG Black 6.T5 freshly dead on Burhou 12 July 2013 (c) PKV

The Movements of LBBG Black 6.T5