Darviced Lesser Black-backed Gull

I was down in Worcester for a few days earlier this week, and whilst there I managed to see a Lesser Black-backed Gull with a darvic ring on its leg, swimming around on the River Severn. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get a photo of the bird out of the water, but I did manage to get a photo of it on the river.

AUJ

As you can (just about) see from the above photo, the bird in question had the darvic ring AUJ. After a quick internet search I found out who had ringed it, and sent off an email. The reply came within 24 hours, and the bird was originally ringed at a Gloucestershire landfill site back in April 2007, 9 years and 39 days ago! The ringer informed me that the bird had been born in 2006, making it 10 years old this year. Since ringing, the bird has been reported on 18 occasions at a couple of landfill sites in Gloucestershire and then on Roath Park Lake in Cardiff. Interestingly, the gull was last recorded, before my sighting, at this park in Cardiff back in January 2011. Where's it been since then? The ringer believes this bird could now be part of the increasing breeding population found in Worcester, so who knows, perhaps I'll find it again on my next visit. I'll definitely have my camera ready!

AUJ

Whilst waiting to get a better shot of the gull I also spent time photographing the numerous darviced Mute Swans that live on the river in the centre of Worcester. In total I photographed 12 different swans, all with darvic rings on their legs. Here's a photo of one.

83L

I saw and photographed one back in January (see here), and found out that it had been ringed just 1km away. All the new birds had the same orange rings, so I'll email the details of yesterday's birds and update the blog with the details.