Rufford Gulls - 3rd September 2024

 Last Tuesday was the last day of the summer holidays, so I popped to Rufford to get my first September visit to the Black-headed Gulls. I recorded 7 of "our" gulls and a new Lithuanian-ringed bird, a juvenile.

Our gulls were: 258A (my 35th sighting), 293A (my 31st sighting), 297A (my 11th sighting), 283B (my 4th sighting),  205C (my 2nd sighting), 207C (my 18th sighting) and 258C (my 11th sighting).

The Lithuanian-ringed gull, a juvenile with the metal ring HA60.507, was hanging around with the other gulls. I sent off the record, but, unfortunately, it hasn't been registered with the Lithuanian Ringing Scheme yet, so I'll have to wait a bit longer to find out where and when it was ringed! Until then, here is a photo.

HA60.507

Other birds seen were: 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull (1st summer/2nd year?), c30 Canada Geese, 4 Greylag Geese, Mallard, Tufted Duck, a Kingfisher (my first record here) and a very interesting-looking hybrid goose.

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Hybrid goose

UPDATE: The Lithuanian gull was ringed, as a pullus, 1,766km away (in Lithuania!) on 13th June 2024, 82 days before being spotted at Rufford.

Rufford Gulls - 7th January 2023

 Yesterday saw my second visit of the year to Rufford CP to check on the overwintering Black-headed Gulls. It was 12 degrees and still, with just 70ish gulls present. No other species of gull were present, but I did spot 14 Goosander ( 10 males and 4 females).

Gulls seen were: EUM3, V77K, P519, 293A, 294A, 295A, 297A, 249B, 272B, 276B, 280B, 293B, 205C, 207C and 215C. (Click on the labels to see details of these birds).

Of the 15 ringed birds seen, three were new for me: 280B, an adult bird ringed on 19th November 2022 at Center Parcs, 205C, a first winter bird (born in 2022) and ringed on 22nd December 2022 at Center Parcs, and 215C, an adult bird, first ringed, at Center Parcs, on 5th January 2023.

280B

205C

215C