Welcome to my blog all about my birdwatching, wild bird ringing activities and moth recording at Linacre Reservoirs, Derbyshire; in Great Britain and abroad.
My latest visit to Rufford was on 2nd March, when I had an hour, and spotted 14 Black-headed Gulls, including new birds; 2V03 (ringed on 18th January, as a 5, born last year), 218F (ringed by me, as a 1st winter bird, on 12th October 2024) and J3018 ( a new Norwegian-ringed bird, that was ringed, as a free-flying juvenile, in Oslo, on 5th August 2024).
On the way back from Norfolk on Sunday, we popped into Rufford for a short, 1 hour visit. There were a lot more birds present, up from c.40 to c.170, and included 6 or our darvic ringed birds.
The birds seen were: 206A, 258A, 293A, 295A, 207C and 258C. All, except 295A, had been reported already this autumn. 295A was last seen back in February (see here).
I didn't go to Rufford last weekend, because of the heavy rain, so I really wanted to get back across today. I went, and ironically, it was pouring with rain!! There were only 40 Black-headed Gulls today (presumably the others were still out on the fields enjoying the rain!), but I did manage to see 5 darviced birds.
The darviced birds were: 206A, 258A, 297A, 207C and 245C. The first birds are regulars, but for 245C, it was the first sighting since 4th February 2024, and only my 5th re-sighting since it was ringed in October 2023. See here for a picture of the same bird, back in December 2023.
Tuesday's visit to Rufford was a great one, with sightings of 9 darviced Black-headed Gulls, including 2 new birds. In addition, the (in)famous Mute Swan, Broken Beak, appeared with his mate and 3 new cygnets.
The new gulls, 211B and a Norwegian-ringed bird, J2586, were both seen feeding with another c100 Black-headed Gulls. 211B was ringed in January 2022, as an adult bird. Until Tuesday, it had only been seen once, at Center Parcs, on 7th August 2024. Presumably, it over-wintered here last year, but evaded our eyes, and there haven't yet been any records of it, in its breeding site.
Last Friday (9th), I drove across to Rufford to see how many Black-headed Gulls had arrived back from their breeding grounds for the winter. I was very pleasantly surprised to find c150 birds, including 20/30 juveniles, and, best of all a juvenile Mediterranean Gull!!!! This is my first ever Med Gull, at Rufford, so I was very, very happy to pick it up, amongst the other gulls.
Last Sunday, I was across at Rufford for a couple of hours, in 12 degree heat! There were still good numbers of gulls around, including c.250 Black-headed Gulls, 17 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and 20 Common Gulls.
As always, the gulls were hungry, which allowed me to read 15 green rings (206A, 258A, 259A, 295A, 254B, 202C, 207C, 245C, 258C, 264C, 270C, 273C, 288C, 290C and 200F), and the Lithuanian-ringed bird, P519.
Most of these gulls are regulars, but there were a few more noteworthy ones. 206A, for example, was ringed in December 2018, as an adult. Last week's sighting was my first since March 2023.
Likewise, 254B was one of the first gulls I ringed, as an adult, in October 2022, and this is just my fifth re-sighting since. Four other gulls were seen for their first time since ringing:270C, 288C, 290C and 200F.
Other birds seen included 21 Goosander (13 females and 8 males), 19 Canada Geese, 6 Greylag Geese and 2 Mute Swans (Broken Beak and an unringed female).
On Sunday, I spent an hour at Clumber and an hour at Rufford, checking the Black-headed Gulls.
Although there were several hundreds gulls at Clumber (mostly Black-headed, but also Common and Herring) I only managed to spot one ringed bird, 208B. As it turned out, this bird was a new one for me, and this sighting was the first since being ringed, at Center Parcs, on 15th January 2022, as an adult bird. As you can see, it's in full breeding plumage, and looking very smart!
Yesterday, I had a few hours visiting a few sites, looking for ringed Black-headed Gulls.
First stop was Clumber Park, where I managed to stop three new gulls. The first bird was an adult with darvic ring TV87. This bird had been ringed in August in Southport, and had spent the winter there. My sighting was the first away from that site, so possibly on the move east again to breed? The second bird was a 1st winter bird (born in 2022) wearing a Polish ring, TV02. I'll update when I get the time and place of ringing back. The third bird was an another first winter bird, but this time from Finland, with metal ring ST339.818. Again, I'll update when details come back.
.JPG)
,%20Clumber,%2025th%20Feb%202023.JPG)
,%20Clumber,%2025th%20Feb%202023.JPG)
Following on from the walk around Linacre, I had my first visit of the year to Rufford Country Park on Sunday. The number of Black-headed Gulls had increased to c.200 and, during the couple of hours there I spotted 10 green darvic-ringed Gulls (206A -my first sighting since December 2021), 246A - the first gull I ringed, back in December 2019, 295A - my first sighting since February 2022, 249B - last seen in November 2022, 255B - last seen on 10th December 2022, 276B - 5th sighting since being ringed in November 2022), 283B -1st sighting, ringed on 19th November 2022, 293B -1st sighting , ringed on 10th December 2022, 202C - 1st sighting, ringed on 22nd December 2022 and 207C - second sighting, ringed on 22nd December.
33) Sparrowhawk 34) Kestrel 35) Canada Goose 36) Greylag Goose 37) Common Gull 38) Herring Gull 39) Mute Swan
Here are the details of my last two visits to Rufford CP, including some old favourites, and a brand new Black-headed Gull.
First up, the visit on the 12th that included the following gull: 206A, 217A, 258A, 273A, 282A, 293A, EL87245, P519, EUM3 and V77K. All known birds, except 282A and 293A, which had been ringed at Center Parcs the week before.
Yesterday's visit, on the 23rd, saw the following birds reported: 217A, 258A, 281A, 284A, 293A, 299A, V77K, EUM3, P519, JO116, EL87245 and S20B. Again, many familiar birds, with the exception of 281A, 284A and 299A (all ringed this winter at Center Parcs), and S20B. Looking on the internet, this bird appears to have been ringed in Zagreb, Croatia, on 2nd February 2012. If confirmed, this will be my first record of a bird from this country, and only the second record of this bird since ringing! The only other record was in Austria in February 2012, shortly after having been ringed.
I've recently had a couple of trips across to Rufford Country Park to check on the wintering Black-headed Gulls.
During last week's trip, on the 30th October, there were c.200 Black-headed Gulls, 6 Common Gulls and 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, along with six darvic-ringed gulls present, namely 206A, 217A, 246A, 255A, 258A, EUM3 (Dutch bird) and P519 (Lithuanian bird - first sighting this winter). Click on the labels to see details of the birds' histories.
In addition there were 6 Mute Swans, including W17328, a bird ringed just 2km away on 5th October 2012, as a 3, born that year. I also had a new Canada Goose, 5270929, which had originally been ringed at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire on 12th May 2016, as an adult. A distance of 21km and 1997 days since ringing. This was the first record since then!
It was much quieter on today's visit, with c.100 Black-headed Gulls , 1 Common Gull and 1 Lesser Black-backed Gulls present. Ringed gulls seen were: 258A, EUM3 and JO116. The last bird was a returning bird, first seen here in October 2021 as a 1st winter bird (see here), that had been ringed, as a pullus, in Norway in 2020.
Yesterday's visit to Rufford Country Park resulted in 5 darvic-ringed Black-headed Gulls (in amongst approximately 2-300 gulls), made up of four birds I've had before and one new bird, along with 2 metal-ringed birds, 1 I've seen before and a new, Swedish-ringed bird.
The darvic-ringed birds were 206A, 217A, V77K, EUM3 and the new bird 210A. 206A and 217A are well known birds, as is EUM3 (see labels for details). V77K is also a familiar bird, originally ringed in Denmark in 2015 (as a pullus) and first seen by me in February 2019. Yesterday's sighting was my first of the winter. Hopefully, it'll hang around again until the new year.
The new darvic-ringed bird was 210A, a bird originally ringed at Center Parcs (2km away), on 2nd January 2019. My sighting was the first since ringing.
I drove across to Rufford CP for a couple of hours yesterday, and saw 3 darvic ringed Black-headed Gulls.
The first gull I saw was the Lithuanian-ringed bird, P519, first seen at Rufford in January 2018. It was seen again in November 2018, and I first saw this bird in February 2019. The bird was then seen throughout the winter 2019 - 2020. Yesterday's sighting was the first for this winter period. It is at least 10 years old, having been ringed as an adult bird in April 2010, 1456km away.
