More Success at Chouet

Over the past three mornings conditions for reading colour rings at Chouet have been excellent, with 169 ring reads of Lesser Black-backed Gulls being taken – including a record of 66 on Thursday 24^th March. Although getting up at the crack of the dawn each morning is a little tiring these efforts are bringing some excellent results for my gull projects. I have now recorded 214 Guernsey colour ringed adult LBBGs this spring, providing valuable data by which to compare the arrival dates for the 125 colour ringed adult LBBGs recorded last spring. Of course the migration is not yet over, and I am hoping to see at least another 100 of my adult birds before the end of the first week in May.

Photographic opportunities have also been good with close birds and (mostly) good light…so I managed to take record shots of several more of my adult LBBGs. A selection is included below:-



Another Excellent Session at Chouet Landfill

After early morning mist cleared a total of 114 gull colour ring reads were taken in the first 90 minutes of light at Chouet landfill. Of the 46 cr Lesser Black-backed Gulls seen, seven were recorded for the first time this spring, including five birds which had been seen in the autumn/winter in Iberia. I was also pleased today to record a passage migrant LBBG – Black T7RF an adult from Dave Sowter’s project. This bird will have been ringed at Tarnbrook Fell, England. Once the sun came out I could not resist a few more photos of the gulls, most of which are now looking very handsome as they begin to court for the 2011 breeding season.



More Gull Photos at Chouet

It was another very beautiful morning today with clear skies overnight resulting in a widespread ground frost. The rising sun soon warmed the day, and I enjoyed another fine early morning session at Chouet landfill recording 53 of my colour ringed Lesser Black-backed Gulls.



Saturday - A Nice Morning at Chouet with the Camera

Saturday was a lovely quiet morning with sunshine. The high tide early in the morning concentrated the gulls in Chouet landfill, where I managed to record 53 of my colour ringed Lesser Black-backed Gulls - including three which were recorded for the first time this spring (one had been recorded in winter in Madrid, Spain and another in the autumn in Beira Litoral, Portugal). I enjoyed the opportunity to try out my new digiscope camera (Panasonic FS10) with good light and with the gulls at reasonably close range.