I've just returned from a two week gull ring reading tip to Northern and Western Portugal, hence the lack of blog postings recently. More of this fabulous trip shortly...but first things first...I'm catching up with gull reports which have come in over the past two weeks. Apologies to observers for the slight delay in replying...but I've almost caught up fully now!
There was a wonderful series of Herring Gulls from Western France, and Lesser Black-backed Gulls from France, Spain and Portugal, but amongst the batch were two "special" ones.
Firstly - another LBBG reported on 09 November by Ruth Garcia Gorria at Sidi Moussa-Walidia Saltpans, Doukkala-Abda, Morocco. This bird - Black 8AN4 - was ringed as an adult male in our garden in July 2012, and has a long history of sightings in Guernsey, as well as a few in Sark (where I think the gull nests).
The other is a Yellow-legged Gull (one of only a handful colour ringed in the Channel Islands), which was ringed at Chouet Landfill during our week of cannon netting with the North Thames Gull Group in May this year. It was a 3rd calendar year bird, and was seen on 07 November 2014 at Hendaye, Pyrenee-Atlantique, France by Alfredo Herrero. It would therefore seem that this immature michahellis was wandering north last may when trapped in Guernsey.
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Yellow-legged Gull White 7JM0 at Chouet Landfill - 24 May 2014 (c) Vic Froome |