1st W Herring Gulls Begging Successfully in Late October

A very relaxing couple of hours in Chouet landfill this morning resulted in c 250 colour ringed Herring Gull ring reads (all locally ringed), as well as 15 GBBGs (all local - bar one wintering bird from Portland Harbour, Dorset, England - White P:43A). Only four LBBGs were present, and one of these was colour-ringed - Black 8T7. This bird was ringed in May 2011 at Chouet, but in each of the previous two autumns it appears to have left Guernsey very much earlier with last sighting dates of 09 August 2011 and 12 August 2012.

On Les Ammareurs Beach, Vale I watched two 1st winter Herring Gulls (White 0FS1 and White 0FS4 colour-ringed as chicks on Jethou on 25 June 2013), begging successfully from adult White 2.PP3 (ringed as an adult in May 2009 in our garden, but known to nest on Jethou in June 2011). It is amazing how late some Herring Gull chicks continue to beg from from their parents!

Herring Gulls 0FS1 and 0FS4 begging food from adult 2.PP3 at Les Ammareurs

 LBBG B8T7

 GBBG Y0PP9

 GBBG Y0PP9 (as chick)

 GBBG Y1AA0

GBBG Metal J0524

English & French GBBGs

It's been a very quiet few days for colour ring recording. The last couple of runs down the West coast have resulted in only c 20 LBBGs each time, including just a couple of locally colour-ringed birds each time. It's now going to be a quiet three months for LBBGs, before the earliest birds start from wintering grounds returning in mid-January next year.

A very quick visit to Chouet landfill Beach resulted in a few GBBG sightings, including an English bird (White P:32A ringed as a chick at Portland Harbour, Dorset in June 2012) and a French bird (Blue 91D - ringed as a chick at Le Havre, Seine-Maritime in June 2009, and recorded in Guernsey most autumns since).

 GBBG Blue 91D

 GBBG White P:32A

W1XX6 - Long-Distance Herring Gull!

Many Islanders assume that Herring Gulls are very sedentary, only ever flying a few km from nesting and resting sites to feeding areas on the beaches or at Chouet Landfill. The colour ringing studies have dispelled this myth with many of our birds dispersing several hundred km each autumn to Western France. A tiny minority fly even further to northern Spain. One such gull is White 1.XX6 which was ringed in late May 2009 in our garden as an adult female. The bird was present again in Guernsey the following summer, strengthening my view that it is a bird from the local breeding population. Then in December 2010 it was recorded in NW Spain, only to be back in Guernsey by 22 January 2011. It has not been recorded in Guernsey since, but has been reported from NW Spain in June 2012, March and May 2013. It would therefore seem that this adult gull has taken a break from the rigours of breeding in 2013 (a well-recorded aspect of many gulls’ breeding ecology...although most such birds would return to the breeding colony and hold territory).

This gull has now become the most southerly Channel Islands’ Herring Gull so far recorded! It was seen and photographed by Pedro Ramalho and Frederico Morais, at Peniche, Leiria, Portugal on 14 October 2013 – a straight line distance from Guernsey of more than 1,250 km! I shall be keeping a keen look out for the return to Guernsey of this exceptional bird any time from Christmas on!

The Movements of Herring Gull W1.XX6

 W1XX6 at Lires, NW Spain (c) Xabi Varela

 (c) Antonio Martinez Pernas

 W1XX6 at Meiras Beach,. NW Spain (c) Antonio Gutierrez

 W1XX6 at Peniche, POrtugal (c) Pedro Ramalho

Less Wind...less GBBGs

...and so it often proves to be! There were still almost 200 GBBGs along the west coast this morning, but only six colour-ringed birds were recorded - the Norwegian bird from Hornoya (seen yesterday), one French bird from Chausey Islands, one of last year's youngsters from Portland Harbour, England and three local birds.

 GBBG White P:27A from Portland Harbour

 GBBG Black J2787 (with data logger on ring) from Hornoya, Norway

Gulls on Vazon Beach

Storm brings in the GBBGs!

As expected today a strong northerly blow brought c 300 GBBGs ashore on Guernsey's West Coast. 18 colour ringed birds were recorded amongst these birds, including two Norwegian and eight French birds (six Chausey Islands and two Le Havre). One of the Norwegian birds (Black JA612) had been ringed as a chick in southern Norway in July 2008, and has been recorded in Guernsey every year since, proving to be very faithful to the island's West Coast in October! The other record Black J2787 appeared to have a datalogger attached to the colour ring. This bird had been ringed as an adult in the summer of 2012 right up in the Arctic Circle on the seabird island of Hornoya in Finnmark. This is the third colour ringed GBBG that I've recorded in Guernsey from that Island very far to the north.  

GBBG Black J2787 from Hornoya, Norway

New Record Set!

Gilbert Vimard has just sent details of 32 Guernsey colour-ringed Herring Gulls seen today amongst a flock of 400-500 Herring Gulls feeding on dead mussels on Gouville-sur-Mer Beach, Manche, France. Not surprisingly...this sets a new record for the largest collection so far of Guernsey-ringed gulls on any single site outside the Channel Islands!

Herring Gull White 6.AA7 - one of 32 Guernsey-ringed Herring Gulls seen at Gouville-sur-Mer Beach, Manche, France today!

What an Old GBBG!

For the first 90 minutes after dawn today, I enjoyed some very close views of feeding gulls at Chouet Landfill. There were less than 10 LBBGs present, but plenty of cr Herring Gulls (160+ reads taken), and GBBGs (nine ring reads - including one bird I ringed as a chick on islands north of Herm in June 1993, making it older than two decades!).

GBBG E5506 - 20+ yrs old!

 GBBG Green L59 from Chausey Islands, Manche, France

Gulls at Chouet landfill

Another Norwegian LBBG and French GBBG

Hot on the heels of Friday's collection of foreign-ringed gulls seen along Guernsey's West Coast, today came another Norwegian-ringed 1st W LBBG. Black J700E was ringed on Rauna, Vest-Agder on 17 July 2013, and then seen in South Holland on 15 September. The other new foreign-ringed gull today was GBBG Black 05P, ringed at Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, France.

LBBG Black J700E from Southern Norway

OK...it's not a Gull...but...!

I rarely post anything on the GuernseyGulls blog apart from Gull news...but there have to be exceptions! Yesterday Rich Austin was undertaking some regular moth trapping in Carole and Hugo Kinnersly's garden at La Petite Valette, St. Saviour's when amongst the catch was a stunning Death's Head Hawkmoth...Europe's largest...and surely one of the most impressive...moths! Apparently this was the 2nd one trapped in Guernsey this year. Catherine and I popped up late in the day to see the spectacular moth and take a few photos...shortly before dusk ...when it flew back out into the night. It's amazing to think there are such impressive beasts flying around our gardens at night!

Death's Head Hawkmoth

Gull Fast...to Gull Feast!

After a week with no gulling, it was marvellous to get back out enjoying the birds again. 90 minutes at Chouet landfill gave me a lot of Herring Gull data to enter into the database (c 160 ring reads), along with 25 GBBGs. It was wonderful to be close up to the gulls again, watching them interacting and feeding boisterously!

What was then meant to be a quick look at the beach before breakfast, turned into an all morning session down the West Coast. Having seen only a small handful of LBBGs in the Landfill, it was very enjoyable to watch small groups of 1st winter birds in the usual hotspots along the West Coast. It was soon clear that passage was well under way today with four foreign-ringed LBBGs - two Dutch, one Danish and one Norwegian bird, along with eight GBBGs from Chausey Islands, Manche, France and another sighting of the 1st W Mediterranean Gull ringed at Véron in France and seen in Guernsey back at the end of July.

Two Yellow-legged Gulls completed a pretty outstanding morning! - an adult at the Landfill and a 2nd winter at Pembroke Beach.

GBBG Green M03 - one of eight GBBGs from Chausey Islands seen today 

 LBBG Black J2A4 from Rauna, Vest--Agder, Norway

 LBBG Black V.F from Southern Netherlands

Adult Yellow-legged Gull

Guernsey LBBG in Africa

News came in today of one of the LBBG chicks ringed on Burhou, Alderney last year. The bird (Black 7AP1) was unfortunately found dead on Casablanca Beach, Morocco (a straight line distance of nearly 1,900 km). While northern populations of LBBGs regularly reach NW Africa in winter, this is less usual for gulls from the southern populations (like Guernsey)...so it is always very valuable to receive such reports. My thanks to Amine Charif for reporting his find.

LBBG Black 7AP1 Burhou July 2012. This little bundle of feathers made it all the way to Africa!

The Movement of LBBG B7AP1

Two Little Coincidences

Amongst the foreign-ringed Lesser Black-backed Gulls I saw at Quarteira, Portugal, last week were two birds that I had already seen on passage through Guernsey! Blue USA.G was ringed by Eric Stienen as a chick at Zeebrugge, Belgium on 13 July 2012. On 18 August that year it was showing very well at Chouet landfill, Guernsey. I saw it again on 16 and 18 September 2013 on the beach at Quarteira .

The other bird was LBBG White A+S, a chick ringed in Bristol, England on 23 June 2011 by Peter Rock. It was recorded last winter in November and April at Quarteira by Michael Davis.  I was fortunate enough to see this gull on spring passage through Guernsey on 23 May this year! On 18 and 20 September 2013 I met up with the bird again some 1, 450 km away on a beach in Southern Portugal! Life sometimes throws us some strange and pleasant coincidences!

LBBG Blue USA.G at Chouet Landfill August 2012

Gulls on the Beach at Quarteira, Faro September 2013

Another Great Trip to Portugal

Last week I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a few early mornings looking for colour ringed gulls around Quarteira in the Algarve, Portugal. Despite being a month earlier than I would  normally visit Portugal there were very good numbers of gulls at Quarteira (4,000+ on some mornings). Lesser Black-backed Gulls were the most numerous at this site. Other sites which are normally very productive (Portimao Fish Port and Porto do Lagos Landfill) were far less so this time, but I only passed the former site twice (both times when fisheries activities were minimal), and visited the landfill once.

Given the limited time available to record gulls, I was very pleased with a total of 106 colour ring sightings involving 80 different birds as follows:- 68 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, nine Yellow-legged Gulls and three White Storks. The Yellow-legged Gulls were all ringed in Iberia (five in Portugal and four in Spain).

The country breakdown for the LBBGs was :- 18 Guernsey, 16 The Netherlands (two projects), 10 England (three projects),six Wales, four each Belgium (two projects) and Portugal, three France, two each Scotland and Norway and singles from Iceland and Spain.

Watching large flocks of LBBGs in the tranquillity of a Portuguese dawn, golden sand at your feet, with the warm sun rising fast in a cloudless sky must surely be one of life’s great treasures....especially when  you are observing some of the same gulls as you see so far away at home!

 Gulls at Quarteira, Faro

White Storks at Porto do Lagos Landfill