Lesser Black-backed Gulls from Northern Europe

When we began our intensive week-long colour ringing at Chouet Landfill each late May/early June we assumed that pretty much all the birds present at the landfill were local birds. We now know this to be far from the truth with many adult gulls being present which are not breeding, and with significant numbers of immature gulls from colonies further north still passing through the islands at that time.

In the past few weeks I’ve received reports of three such birds, all ringed as immatures in May at Chouet Landfill, and subsequently reported from The Netherlands (two) and Norway (one).

Without the colour ringing programmes we would never have known just how important Chouet landfill has been for migrating and dispersing gulls, as well as to those nesting locally.

Gulls over Chouet Landfill (c) PKV