Return of the Yellow-legged Gulls

The highlights of a quick trip along Guernsey's north and west coasts this morning were another two Yellow-legged Gulls (both 3rd summer +) - making five different birds in the last three days. Although a tiny increase, this same pattern was observed last August. Once again I don't seem capable of recognising the juvenile michahellis (there must be some  here...and given how many juvenile gulls I've spent the last month looking at...you really would think?!!).

The other highlight was a stunningly beautiful dusky juvenile colour ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull on Cobo. This is the 3rd of the 45 birds Catherine and I colour ringed on Sark this summer, which I've observed on Guernsey's beaches this autumn.

 LBBG Black 2CC0 Cobo

 Yellow-legged Gulls - Cobo

Gull Flock on Pembroke Beach

Guernsey's West Coast Autumn Gull Flocks Form

An hour at Pembroke and Chouet, followed by a run down the West Coast this morning was very successful for ring reads with 130 Herring Gulls 70 LBBGs and 17 GBBGs. At this time of year Pembroke and Chouet are dominated by Herring Gulls, while most of the Lesser Black-backed Gulls and often many Great Black-backed Gulls can be found in several flocks along the west coast - at Vazon, Perelle and L'Eree beaches. 

This morning there were 1,000+ Herring Gulls on Pembroke, with 500 LBBGs and 100 GBBGs along the West Coast. Amongst the colour ringed birds on the West Coast were four French-ringed (three Chausey Islands and one Seine-Maritime) GBBGs, one English-ringed GBBG (Cornwall), and Lesser Black-backed Gulls from East-Agder, Norway (Black JK2X)  and the South-west of England (Yellow A+W).

 Gull Flock at Perelle Beach 

LBBG Yellow A+W Perelle 

The Bailiwick of Guernsey Seabird Season 2013

In keeping with recent years, I've completed the accounts of the various Seabird Monitoring Trips around the Bailiwick of Guernsey for the summer of 2013. Brief reports can be viewed at the following link

Seabird Monitoring Trips 2013

PKV with Three LBBG Chicks on Burhou (c) Chris Bale

Welsh LBBG and Turnstone Update

A quick trip to the beach before work today produced several of our juvenile cr Great Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls, and an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull which had been ringed on Flat Holm, Cardiff, Wales. 

Many thanks to the kind people who helped me out yesterday in locating the origins of the colour ringed Ruddy Turnstone seen on Sunday at Bellegreve Bay. It looks like I missed the end of the code on the flag, but the bird will have been ringed at Petten, North Holland, as part of a project run by Hans Roersma & Nell van Brederode.

LBBG Black 3EF at Pembroke Beach (c) PKV

Colour-Ringed Ruddy Turnstone

The weekend produced some very nice colour ring reading at Chouet Landfill and the beaches of the north and east coast of Guernsey. Although numbers of adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls are thinning out as more birds migrate south, there are still plenty of birds around. The moulting gull flock on Pembroke was also almost 1,000 birds on Sunday morning, and in the "nursery" on the shoreline were a couple of juvenile cr Herring Gulls and my first rarity of the autumn - a Guernsey cr juvenile LBBG (Black 1CC6 from Sark).

At Bellegreve Bay this morning there were at least 14 Mediterranean Gulls (two juveniles); two cr birds seen the previous week (White 3E90 and Green RN09) and three metal-ringed birds. The biggest surprise of the weekend, however, was a colour-ringed Ruddy Turnstone. I'm not sure where this bird was ringed...hopefully all will be revealed soon?!

Ruddy Turnstone with Yellow Flag and Colour Ring (c) PKV

Mediterranean Gull White 3E90

 Gull Flock on Pembroke Beach

GBBG Black 50J from Seine-Maritime, France

Gulls at Chouet landfill (all photos (c) PKV)

Seabirds at Sea

It was a privilege to be invited on board when on 7th August 2013 Chris Morris and Sea Fisheries staff undertook a routine fisheries patrol in the 6 – 12 mile fisheries controlled zone off Guernsey’s west coast. Conditions for observing seabirds at sea were excellent with a gentle breeze, slight sea and overcast conditions. Fortunately rain was only light and sporadic, clearing soon after mid-day.

During the day fisheries personnel inspected four vessels - three French Demersal Trawlers (wet fish) and one English Scallop Dredger. 

Grand Total of Seabirds Observed:

Lesser Black-backed Gull 480+ (c 20% juveniles)

Northern Fulmar 73+

Herring Gull 56

Northern Gannet 48

Great Black-backed Gull  9

European Storm-petrel   7

Great Skua  5

Balearic Shearwater  3

Manx Shearwater  2

Common Tern 2

Sooty Shearwater  1

GRAND TOTAL = 686 birds

Conclusions

1. In the 6 – 12 mile zone offshore from Guernsey's west coast, the commonest seabird in early August was Lesser Black-backed Gull ( 70%  of all sightings) - LBBGs outnumbered Herring Gulls in this zone 480:56  (around 8.6:1);
2. Many of the LBBGs observed were carrying colour rings fitted in Guernsey or Alderney (but none could be read given the movement on the sea);
3. Northern Fulmars were surprisingly common (73+ birds);
4. There were comparatively few Northern Gannets (only 48 birds);
5. Demersal Trawling provides significant discards for seabird (but the cleanest boat held significantly less birds that boats which spilt more fish on deck and tossed by catch back in the sea very quickly);
6. Scallop Dredging provides very little food for seabirds and is of little interest to them; and
7. The records of Great Skua, Sooty Shearwater and Common Terns show that autumn passage of northern breeding seabirds is underway.