Rufford - 21st February 2022

 After the wet and very windy weekend I went down to Rufford yesterday afternoon. There were about 100 Black-headed Gulls (and 1 Common Gull).

Ringed birds seen were: 281A, 289A, 293A, 294A, 295A, 297A, 207B and JO116 (Norwegian bird). In addition, there were 12 Mute Swans (9 adults, including W17328, and 3 juveniles - born last year). 

289A and 207B were new birds. 289A was originally ringed on 8th December 2021, at Center Parcs, 2km away, whilst 207B was ringed at the same site on 8th January 2022. Both birds had been born in 2021, and yesterday's sightings were the first since ringing.

289A

207B

In addition to these sightings, news came through last week of Black-headed Gull 237A. This bird was ringed at Center Parcs on 20th November 2019, as a 1st winter bird, born in 2019. It was a regularly seen bird during the winters of 2019 and 2020, with the last UK sighting in January 2021. Last week's news was a report from may 2021, when it was seen, over 2000km away, in Novgorod, Russia!

Rufford and Clumber - 21st December 2020

 On Monday I had a few hours at Rufford and Clumber Park, looking for ringed Black-headed Gulls. In total, I saw 5 known birds and 2 new ones. I also saw a new Canada Goose.

At Rufford, the gulls seen were 217A, 237A, 255A, EUM3 and V77K. 225A, the first new bird, had been ringed at Center Parcs on 25th January 2020. It was seen there again on 26th November 2020, but Monday's sighting was my first and the first record for Rufford.

255A, Rufford CP

The new Canada Goose was ring number 5215987. It had been ringed on 1st January 2003, making it at least 18 years old (born in 2002), but I'll update when I get the age and place of ringing back.

When I arrived at Clumber Park there were about 100 Black-headed Gulls out on the grassed area by the Chapel. Unfortunately, there weren't any darvic rings to be seen, but I did spot a new British-ringed bird, EY30536, which had been ringed 4th March 2013 (location yet to be confirmed), and a Danish-ringed bird, VAO171, which I first saw here on 18th November 2018. It had been ringed 911km away on Hirsholm, on 26th May 2015. 

EY30536

VAO171

The darvic-ringed Mute Swan, Y204, that Jayne and I saw back in November, was also present.

New Black-headed Gull - VA5573

There were about 200 Black-headed Gulls at Rufford CP yesterday, including three well known birds, 217A, 237A and V77K (see labels for details of these birds). The sighting of 237A was the first since March 2020 (see here). In addition, a new, 1st winter bird (born this year) bearing a Danish metal ring, VA5573 was seen. 

Danish-ringed Black-headed Gull VA5573

VA5573

Details received from the Danish Ringing Scheme show that the bird was ringed, as a pullus, 877km away, on Hirsholm, Denmark on 25th May 2020.

In addition to the gulls there were also two metal-ringed Mute Swans, W17370 and W17357. The former bird was also present on my last visit, and had been ringed by Birklands RG, 3km away in September 2014. W17357 had also been ringed by Birklands RG, 3km away. It was ringed, as a age 5 bird (born in 2015), on 10th February 2016.

W17357

The final rings read were 2 Canada Geese (5230424 and 5215963) and 1 Greylag Goose (5230471). All 3 birds had been sighted previously, and had been ringed just 3km away (click on the labels to see ringing details).

Norwegian Common Gull

On Sunday (15th) I went across to Rufford and Clumber Park again to see which, if any, gulls were still present.

Rufford drew a complete blank for ringed gulls. In fact, there were only 11 Black-headed Gulls there, so it looks as if the winter "gulling" sessions are over until July/August when the first wintering birds should return.

Clumber still held Black-headed and Common Gulls. There were approximately 100 Black-headed Gulls present, including 237A, a regular bird that I've seen at both Rufford and Clumber since November 2019. It's a 1st winter/2nd calendar year bird, born in 2019, and ringed at Sherwood Center Parcs on 20th November 2019.

237A

There were a minimum of 10 Common Gulls on the lake, including at darvic ringed bird (JH229), a 1st winter/2nd calendar year bird that was ringed, as a pullus, on 13th July 2019, in Nesna harbour, Nordland, Norway, 1614km away!

Common Gull JH229

Rufford and Clumber Gulls - 7th March 2020

I had a pop over to Rufford and Clumber Park yesterday to check for wintering Black-headed Gulls before they set off back to their breeding grounds.

My first stop, Rufford CP, was pretty quiet, with  approximately 50 gulls still present, including 208A, an adult bird ringed at Sherwood Center Parcs on 2nd January 2020 and first seen by me, at Rufford on 2nd February 2020. As the photo shows, the bird's hood is developing nicely.

208A

At Clumber there were a lot more Black-headed Gulls still present (200+), along with c.20 Common Gulls.

2 ringed gulls were seen; namely 237A ( a regular bird, born in 2019, first ringed at Center Parcs in November 2019 and seen at Rufford in December 2019, January 2020 and February 2020, before its first sighting at Clumber on 22nd February 2020, and again on 7th March 2020), and 256A - new bird for me. 256A was born in 2019, and was ringed on 29th January 2020 in Warsop. This sighting was the first since ringing.

237A 

256A

Nottinghamshire Gulls

This week I had a couple of visits looking for wintering Black-headed Gulls.

The first trip was to Rufford Country Park on Wednesday, where there were approximately 100  gulls including several familiar birds: V77K, a Danish -ringed bird born in 2015, British-ringed EL87245, 243A (ringed at Sherwood Center Parcs, in December 2019), 246A, ringed by me at Center Parcs on 21st December 2019 (see here), and my first sighting since and 259A, also ringed at Center Parcs, this time on 1st February 2020, and also the first sighting away from that site.

246A at Rufford CP

My second trip was around Clumber Park on Saturday, where there were 300+ gulls around the main lake. The majority were Black-headed, but there were also a dozen or so Common Gulls. Whilst there I managed to see 5 darvic-ringed Black-headed Gulls: 217A, 237A, 246A (again!) and 2 new ones for me, 257A (ringed at Center Parcs on 1st February 2020) and 2ASN, a second winter bird, that had been ringed, as a chick, at Rutland Water in June 2019.

257A

2ASN

Gulls Again!

I had a short visit to Rufford CP this afternoon and saw 3 darviced Black-headed Gulls and 1 metal ringed bird.

The 3 darvic ringed birds were 237A (ringed as a 1st winter bird, at Center Parcs on 20th November 2019), V77K ( the 5 year old, Danish ringed bird) and 252A ( a 1st winter/2nd calendar year bird, ringed at Center Parcs on 18th January 2020.

237A

V77K

252A

The metal ringed bird, 6456073,was the Swedish ringed bird I first saw at Rufford on 2nd January 2020. It was ringed, as a pullus, on 1st June 2019, 950km away in southern Sweden.

6456073

New Year Gulls - Part 1

In the first few days of 2020 I've had a couple of trips to Rufford CP to get my first sightings of darvic ringed Black-headed Gulls for the year. All the darvic-ringed birds were familiar birds, but I did also manage to find, and read, a metal ringed Swedish bird (details sent off), along with some darviced Mute Swans.

I visited Rufford on Thursday 2nd, and spotted 217A, 237A, 247A (all ringed at Center Parcs, 2km away). 247A was ringed just a few weeks ago on 21st Dec 2020 and this was my first sighting at Rufford. Also seen were: V77K (a Danish bird ringed, as a pullus, in June 2015), EUM3 (a Dutch bird ringed, as a pullus, in May 2017) and P519 (a Lithuanian bird ringed, as an adult, in April 2010), along with a new Swedish bird with metal ring number 6456037, and a British metal ringed bird with the number EL87245 (a bird I'd previously seen here in November 2019).

247A

Whilst at Rufford, I also saw 2 darviced Mute Swans, 108Y and 439Y, both birds that I'm sure were ringed by Sorby Breck Ringing Group. This is my first sighting of these birds here. I'll update the blog when I have the ringing details.

108Y and 439Y

My second visit, on 3rd January, had the same gulls as the day before, and a new one, 230A, which is a bird that was ringed at Center Parcs, on 2nd February 2019, as an adult bird, and one that I'd seen a couple of times in September 2019.

230A

UPDATE: The Swedish gull was ringed, as a pullus, 950km away in southern Sweden on 1st June 2019.

Gulls at Rufford - 24th November 2019

After the ringing session on Sunday I had  an hour at Rufford Abbey CP with the gulls. In total I saw 5 colour/darvic ringed birds.

Three of the darvic rings were from the Sorby Breck/Birklands Ringing Group partnership, and involved a familiar bird, 217A, that was ringed at Center Parcs in January 2019, and one I first saw here in February 2019, and then again on 9th November 2019.

217A

The next 2 gulls were numbers 235A and 237A, both ringed at Center Parcs on 13th and 20th November 2019 respectively. These sightings were my first.

235A

237A

The other 2 darviced birds were also well known birds, EUM3 (Dutch ringed) and P519 (Lithuanian ringed), both of which have been seen here on several occasions last winter and this autumn.