Some Interesting Sightings and Lots of Cr Gulls on Beaches

In recent days I've had the first report of a Guernsey-ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull recovered in a  breeding colony in The Netherlands. Black 1AK9 was ringed as a 3rd calendar year female on 22 May 2012 at Chouet Landfill. It was then seen on 2nd August 2012 at Esmelle Beach, A Coruna, Spain. Unfortunately it was a traffic casualty at Maasvlakte, South Holland on 28 May 2013. This is the first time one of our Guernsey-ringed birds has been reported from another breeding colony in The Netherlands. Presumably the bird was migrating through Guernsey in May 2012.

 LBBG Black 1AK9 Movements

LBBG Black 1AK9 at Esmelle, Spain (c) Antonio Gutierrez

Yesterday Yves Dubois reported GBBG Yellow 0.JJ6  from a reserve in Somme, France. This is the furthest north-east that one of our GBBGs has so far been observed. This gull shows very well how many GBBGs from the Channel Islands wander around the English Channel before reaching maturity.

 GBBG Yellow 0.JJ6 Movements

 GBBG Yellow 0.JJ6 as a chick (c) PKV

GBBG Yellow 0.JJ6 at Somme, France (c) Yves Dubois

Finally today I spent an hour at Chouet Landfill Beach and Pembroke Beach enjoying the sight of so many more gulls bearing colour rings (following our recent successes during cannon netting week at Chouet Landfill).

 Gulls on Pembroke Beach (c) PKV

From the Ridiculous to the Sublime!

After struggling all year to catch gulls, we hit the jackpot this week with around 2,000 large gulls caught at Chouet landfill. This was the result of our week long cannon netting with Paul Roper and members of the North Thames Gull Group. This is the fifth consecutive year that we have been able to run this joint operation with NTGG. Results will begin to flow from this work almost immediately, but it is likely to be more than two decades before the full value of this amazing week of scientific data collection is realised.

Guernsey Gulls are very fortunate that North Thames agreed to partner with it in this research. Over the last five years it has taken the work in Guernsey from local interest to a major international study on gulls.

While science is at the root of everything we do with this work, the week once again proved to be exciting and extremely good fun. It is incredible how such a large team of people from Guernsey and the UK are prepared to commit so much time and effort to making the event so successful and enjoyable.

Once again this work would not have been possible without the outstanding help and cooperation from the Public Services Department and especially all the landfill staff at Chouet, all of whom worked tirelessly to ensure that we caught so many gulls.

Below are a few photos from the event, which give a brief flavour of the week's work. All photos are by Cristina Sellares.

All photos (c) Cristina Sellares

Another Very Nice Couple of Hours at Chouet

Despite the light rain this morning, I was able to enjoy a very successful couple of hours at Chouet, with another 150 gull cr reads - today mostly Herring Gulls (but c 50 LBBGs). The most exciting bird was LBBG Black 0.R2 , ringed as a chick on Alderney in July 2009, and then back on Burhou last summer. In December 2012 it was spotted in NW Spain.