Two Norwegian GBBGs and another Two Yellow-legged GullS

In less than ideal conditions at Chouet landfill Beach this morning I recorded just under 100 cr Lesser Black-backed Gulls (all local birds having returned from wintering outside the Islands). Other highlights included two well-known immature Great Black-backed Gulls ringed in SW Norway, and adult and 3rd calendar year Yellow-legged Gulls.

 Chouet Landfill Beach - yes more rain and more wind!

 Returning cr LBBGs

Yellow-legged Gull (adult)

A Cheerful Story of an Old Gull

With so much depressing news of the seabird wreck in France, the Channel Islands and SW England, it was very nice last night to be able to make a Jerseyman's evening with news of an old colour-ringed Herring Gull, which has has known for many years. Andrew Syvret tells the story in his blog...with click on links to the bird's details:-

http://www.seajersey.com/blog/?p=367

Herring Gull Yellow 0A5 (re-ringed White 9HV5) ringed in 1998 in Jersey by the late Bob Burrow

Our First Black-headed Gull Report

Today was another exciting day for GuernseyGulls with a report from Lars Lindgren of Black-headed Gull Black 2A12 at Maglebaek so near Copenhagen, DENMARK. What makes this a remarkable record is the fact that we have only managed (so far) to colour ring two Black-headed Gulls in Guernsey. This bird was ringed during our regular week of cannon netting at Chouet landfill in May 2013. It is very likely to have been a non-breeding bird last summer, which has now been seen at its breeding colony in Denmark!

 Black-headed Gull Black 2A12 at Chouet landfill (c) Cristina Sellares

Little and Large! (c) Cristina Sellares

The Movement of Black-headed Gull Black 2A12

...and Another Yellow-legged Gull

The highlights of another very enjoyable couple of hours at Chouet landfill this morning were 68 cr LBBGs (including a new bird ringed in Gloucestershire, England - Blue CCE), and the third different Yellow-legged Gull in as many days. Today's bird was in 3rd calendar year+ plumage.

 Yellow-legged Gull - 3rd cy+

 Guernsey Colour-Ringed LBBGs

 LBBG Blue CCE from Gloucestershire, England

 GBBG Black 25L from Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, France

Guernsey cr Herring Gull 0HX5

Back from Africa

Another wonderful session at Chouet landfill this morning produced almost 100 cr LBBGs amongst the c 500 LBBGs present. Pride of place was White 8.Z0...a well-know adult LBBG ringed on Sark in 2009 which I'd last seen two months earlier 2,200 km away at Anza, Morocco! Other highlights included another immaculate adult Yellow-legged Gull. 

 LBBG White 8.Z0 at Chouet Landfill

 LBBG White 8.Z0 at Anza, Morocco

 Selection of the day's c 100 cr LBBGs at Chouet landfill

Adult Yellow-legged Gull at Chouet landfill

Iceland and Yellow-legged Gulls at Chouet landfill...and the Return of lots of LBBGs!

Gull watching rarely gets better than it did this morning. Almost three hours in Paradise (well...OK Chouet Landfill actually...but it may as well have been Paradise!). It was just so good to be watching more than 150 LBBGs again, after their winter absence. Amongst them were 60+ colour ringed birds, many of which will have been recorded in Iberia or France this winter. The early morning rain and drizzle and all the mud could not dampen my spirits...it's always a fabulous feeling to welcome these gulls back home at the start of each season.
As if this was not enough excitement I also got very close and prolonged views of a 1st Winter Iceland Gull and a 2nd Winter Yellow-legged Gull.

 1st W Iceland Gull

 GBBG Black JJ048 (from Hordaland, Norway)

 Chouet Landfill

LBBGs Back Home for another Season!

First CI ringed LBBG Reported from Mauretania!

Very exciting news was received today from Dutch ornithological researcher Tom van Spanje who, together with Mammadou Hamat Ndongo, observed a Guernsey-ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull in Mauretania – our first report from this country! In fact only one other Channel Islands’-ringed LBBG has been reported further south than this gull (a chick ringed on Burhou in July 2010 which wintered in The Gambia before returning to its natal colony where it was found dead last summer). B3AH8 was  watched on Wharf Beach in Mauretania's capital city of Nouakchott – more than 3,700 km from its place of ringing at Chouet Landfill. It will be very interesting to see where this bird may be reported during the summer of 2014, so that we can know if this is a locally breeding gull, or one that was ringed while still on passage through Guernsey in May 2012.

The Migration of LBBG Black 3AH8

LBBGs (incl. B3AH8)  at Wharf Beach, Nouakchott, Mauretania (c) Tom van Spanje

A "New" First Record of Scandinavian Herring Gull in Guernsey!

Only on 11 January this year I posted an blog on the first recorded observation of a Scandinavian race Herring Gull (Larus argentatus argentatus) in the Channel Islands.This refereed to a bird that had been colour ringed up in Arctic Norway, and seen several times in January 2014 at Chouet in Guernsey. However, this week I received a very exciting record, and excellent photo, from Ingar Bringsvor of Herring Gull White 7CW6 at Sandshamn, Sandoya, Norway. This gull had been ringed on 21 May 2012 at Chouet Landfill, and is therefore now the first record of argentatus in Guernsey (even though we did not assign the bird to this race when ringed as part of a large catch taken in a cannon net!). This is  much more surprising record because this Scandinavian bird was ringed in full adult plumage in Guernsey in May, and must therefore either have been a young bird in its last year before breeding, or a full adult which was taking a year out of nesting, and which was taking advantage of the organic food supply at Chouet. Interestingly though I did not record this gull in Guernsey again after ringing.

Herring Gull White 7CW6 at Sandshamn, Norway (c) Ingar Bringsvor

The Movement of Herring Gull White 7CW6

The Flood Gates Begin to Open and an Immaculate michahellis

It's been a few days since I've been out gull watching...but it is clear from an hour this morning at Chouet landfill Beach that the flood gates are beginning to open and the Lesser Black-backed Gulls are just beginning to pour back home for another season! Of the c 40 LBBGs at Chouet this morning, 15 were locally colour ringed birds, and several of these were known to be wintering in Iberia as far south as Quarteira Beach in the Algarve. Amazingly I had seen several of these gulls over the winter on my trips to Portugal. So...despite the continuing very wet and windy weather I have a big smile on my face today - the season is upon us!

Another highlight at Chouet this morning was an immaculate adult Yellow-legged Gull. 

 LBBG Black 7AT6

 Gulls at Chouet

(A Shy) Adult Yellow-legged Gull Chouet