Rufford - 5th February 2022

 I spent yesterday morning at Rufford Country Park. I got there earlier than I usually do, so that I could walk across the the Abbey and have a look for some Hawfinches. It was a little windy, but I managed to get  brief views of 2 birds in the trees around the car park. Walking back through the park, I also spotted 15 Redwings, a large flock of Siskin, 1 Grey Heron, 14 Goosander (8 females and 6 males), 1 Little Egret (my first record for this site), 6 Mute Swans (3 adults and 3 young birds, including W17357) and a whopping 66 Common Gull.

Also on the water were approximately 150 Black-headed Gulls. I spotted 12 darvic-ringed birds: 223A (first ringed in February 2019, and my first sighting since October 2020), 258A, 264A (ringed in February 2020, and the first sighting since), 281A (3rd sighting, since ringing in December 2021), 293A (5th sighting), 294A (first sighting), 295A (2nd sighting), EUM3 (Dutch bird), P519 (Lithuanian bird), JO116 ( Norwegian bird) and 204B, a new bird, first ringed in January 2022. In addition, I also saw the Norwegian-ringed Common Gull JN075.

264A

294A

204B

The Hawfinches were a new bird for the year and bring Year List to 103, following Raven and Chough, that I saw last week in Wales.

Year List update:

101 - Raven

102 - Chough

103 - Hawfinch

Rufford Gulls - 31st October 2020

Despite the rain and strong winds, I popped across to Rufford on Saturday, and I'm very glad I did! Not only did I spot 8 darvic ringed gulls (my highest ever in one session), but, more importantly, I managed to read the metal ring of the new gull, JO116, and confirm that it is a Norwegian-ringed bird. It's a first winter bird, so will have been ringed as a pullus this summer. Exact details will be added as and when I get them back.

VO116

Another highlight of Saturday's visit was my first sighting of the Dutch-ringed adult bird, EUM3, since 20th July. I was getting worried that I hadn't see it for so long, so it was very nice to confirm it was alive and well. It was a quite distinctive head pattern  when in winter plumage, with the two bands of dark feathers.

EUM3

A new gull (for me) was an adult bird, 223A. This bird was ringed at the start of February 2019, and had only been seen once since ringing at Center Parcs (2km away) on 18th November 2019. My sighting was the first of this winter. It spent all the time, preening on the pontoon. Hopefully, it'll become a regular sighting this winter.

223A

The other gulls seen on Saturday were well known birds: 217A, 240A, 246A, 258A and Lithuanian-ringed P519 (click on the birds' labels for full details of ringing details and previous sightings).