More Exciting Gull News

It is such a busy time of year at the moment, with so many reports of our colour-ringed gulls outside the Channel Islands that it is very difficult to keep up with blog postings! There have been so many interesting reports in the past few weeks that it is difficult to  pick out  a few highlights. Last week Tin van Nus and Pedro Moreira recorded 39 Guernsey-ringed LBBGs at Eirol Landfill during a single visit, while Salva Garcia and Gerry O’Neill made 15 Guernsey LBBG colour ring observations at Malaga Port last weekend! The Madrid Gull Team is also reporting a build-up of our gulls on the landfills in central Spain…and there have been a whole plethora of reports from beaches in northern Spain and all down Portugal’s west coast.

Herring Gulls are not to be over-looked either, with many of the locally nesting birds now being reported from their regular autumn/wintering areas along the French coast from Calvados to Loire-Atlantique.

The first of the locally-ringed wandering immature GBBGs are also now turning up in SW England, with Dawlish Warren (watched in the main by Lee Collins) being one of the most productive sites for our birds.

However…pride of place over the past few weeks must go to Yellow-legged Gull Black 1AT2, which was recorded on 5^th September 2014 at Pavoa de Varzim, Porto, Portugal by Inocencio Oliveira and Teresa Rocha. This gull was originally ringed as a juvenile bird in our garden in July 2012, before being reported on a number of occasions between January 2013 and January 2014 from Catalunya, Spain. This young gull has therefore now been reported on both the east and west coasts of Iberia!

Yellow-legged Gull at Pavoa de Varzim, Porto, Portugal on 05 September 2014 (c) Inocencio Oliveira