Lesser Black-backed Gulls pouring back into Guernsey and a Norwegian Great Black-backed Gull

With c 100 LBBG colour ring readings on each of the past two mornings at Chouet, the return migration is probably now peaking. Another nice surprise this morning was another immature Norwegian Great Black-backed Gull - the third seen this month.

GBBG Black JH083

2011 Guernsey Gulls Annual Report Now Available

The 2011 Guernsey Gulls Annual Report
is now available - 


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Portuguese-ringed LBBG in Guernsey

Amongst 70 rings read on Lesser Black-backed Gulls at Chouet this morning before work was a foreign metal ringed adult. Fortunately for me this bird, probably a male due to its size and dominant behaviour, claimed a position resting on a rock at close range. I managed to read the front four digits of the ring and a part of the address. Then, less fortunately, the recycling bins were emptied and the noise flushed the gull. I thought I’d lost this record...but within 15 minutes the bird was back on the same rock…albeit very briefly before it flushed again. However…my luck was in today…and I found it resting on another rock at close range for a few seconds enabling all but the final digit of the code to be read…so we should be able to narrow this bird down to within 10 gulls. I’m not 100% certain yet, but I think the words “cempa estado” on the ring indicate that this is a bird from the Portuguese ringing scheme. The number was MO2782-

This was all around a lucky morning because the fog was once again thick…and I feared that no ring reading would be possible.

Wonderful weekend at Chouet

This is just about peak spring arrival time for LBBGs in Guernsey, and it showed at Chouet this weekend. A couple of hours in the landfill produced stunning views of the gulls at very close range - and with c60 colour ring reads taken on each of two days there was plenty of action to enjoy. Many of the birds are freshly arrived back from wintering grounds in Iberia or northern France. The Iceland Gull was apparently seen again on Friday morning. At least five French ringed Great Black-backed Gulls were also present at the landfill.

First Guernsey Great Black-backed Gull Reported from Spain!

My thanks to Antonio Gutierrez and Ricardo Rodriguez for some superb detective work in working out the code on a colour ringed GBBG in Spain. Very careful examination of photos confirmed the bird seen just over the French border at Plaiaundi, Irún, Gipuzkoa, Spain on Saturday 03 March 2012. Yellow 0.FF8 is the very first GBBG ringed in the Channel Islands to be reported from Spain. Until this record the furthest SW of any of our birds had been reported was Vendée, France. Yellow 0.FF8 was ringed as a chick on 22 June 2010 on Crevichon, Jethou. It was seen three times in Guernsey in August 2010, but then not again until its sighting in Spain.

 GBBG Yellow 0.FF8 Gipuzkoa, Spain 03 March 2010

Crevichon, Jethou

A Wonderful Saturday morning at Chouet

In a fabulous couple of hours at Chouet on Saturday I recorded 80 of my returning colour ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull, as well as one of Roland-Jan Buij's birds ringed in The Netherlands. Of course many of the 80 birds had been seen in Iberia over the winter, but Black 3AC0 was last seen by Antonio Gutierrez at Carino Beach, A Coruna, NW Spain only six days earlier!

Incredibly two of the nine cr Great Black-backed Gulls were birds colour ringed in Vest-Agder, southern Norway! Amongst all this activity it was hard to do justice to my Herring Gulls, but I did add another 62 sightings to my database.  All in all a really exciting couple of hours at Chouet!

 LBBG Black 3AC0 back in six days or less from NW Spain!

 

 LBBG Red TV from The Netherlands

GBBG Black JH350 from southern Norway

27 cr LBBGs at Chouet this morning

A steady return migration is now in full swing for our breeding LBBGs. Today, in an hour before work, I recorded 27 of my cr birds - including several that have been reported over the autumn/winter in England, France, Portugal and Spain.

 Gulls at Chouet landfill Beach

LBBG Black 8F7