Gulls, Gulls, Gulls!!!

I spent just over an hour in Rufford Country Park this afternoon and saw 6 colour ringed Black-headed Gulls and 1 metal ringed bird!

Three of the colour ringed birds, 217A, 227A and 232A, were British ringed and had been ringed by ringers from Sorby Breck and Birklands Ringing Groups. I have recorded 217A here before, on 3rd February 2019 (see here), whereas 227A and 232A were new birds for me.

217A

I don't yet know where and when 227A was ringed, but 232A was ringed just a couple of kilometres away, as a first winter bird, at Center Parcs on 30/10/19.

227A

232A

The metal ringed bird, EL87245, was also British-ringed, so I'll send off details and update the blog when I hear back.

The other 3 darviced gulls were all known birds, namely EUM3 (Dutch ringed and seen on every visit since August), P519 (Lithuanian ringed see here and here) and V77K (Danish ringed bird, first seen here in February 2019 see here and my first sighting of the winter.)

V77K

UPDATE: The metal-ringed gull EL87245 was ringed on 02/01/13, by Birklands Ringing Group, 3km away.