Rufford Gulls - 18th February 2023

 I had an hour at Rufford yesterday. It was 12 degrees and overcast and there were c.200 gulls present.

In the hour, I saw 14 of "our" green-ringed gulls, including 254B, which I ringed, at Center Parcs, on 22nd October 2022, as an adult bird. My sighting was the first since then.

254B

Other gulls seen were: 246A, 258A, 281A, 293A, 295A, 296A, 249B, 255B, 276B, 280B, 293B, 202C and 215C. 

In addition Danish-ringed V77K, Norwegian-ringed Common Gull JN075 and metal-ringed Black-headed Gull, EL87245 were also seen.

Several of the gulls were starting to get their breeding plumage, including 293B.

293B

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

Rufford Country Park - 1st January 2023

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. 

293B

202C

In addition, I also spotted EUM3 (Dutch bird), V77K (Danish bird), P519 (Lithuanian ringed), Norwegian Common Gull, JN075 and a new Dutch metal-ringed Black-headed Gull, 3.832.176 (ringing details to follow). 

UPDATE: 3.832.176 was ringed, as a chick, 369km and 558 days ago, in Serooskerke Schouwen, Zeeland, The Netherlands. My sighting was the first since ringing.

Year List update:

33) Sparrowhawk 34) Kestrel 35) Canada Goose 36) Greylag Goose 37) Common Gull 38) Herring Gull 39) Mute Swan

Rufford Gulls - 20th November 2022

 After a morning session of gull ringing at Center Parcs on Saturday (6 new Black-headed Gulls ringed, numbers 280B - 285B), I was back down at Rufford on Sunday for a couple of hours to see who I could see.

In the two hours, I saw a total of 13 ringed birds (from c.300 Black-headed and 4 Common Gulls), 9 darviced Black-headed Gulls (246A, 293A, 296A, 249B, 255B, 271B - new for me, 276B - new for me, EUM3and P519), 1 darviced Common Gull (JN075 - first seen in January 2022) and 3 metal-ringed Black-headed Gulls.( EL87245 (regular wintering bird, EY30536 - a bird first ringed in March 2013, just 21km away at Daneshill Landfill Site, and my second sighting, after one in Clumber in December 2020; and a new one with a ring above the "knee" on the right leg. Unfortunately, I could only get a few digits 3.876, so no chance of finding out where it was ringed - yet!).

271B

276B and JN07

In addition to the gulls, there were also four un-ringed Mute Swans.  

Rufford Gulls - 6th November 2022

Jayne and I had an hour at Rufford on Sunday and recorded a good number of darviced Black-headed Gulls. Those seen were: 281A, 293A, 296A, 249B, 255B, 258B, EL87245 (first ringed in 2013), EUM3 (Dutch bird).

255B and 258B were both new birds for me and had been ringed at Center Parcs over the last couple of weeks. 

255B

258B

Welcome back EUM3 and P519

I had a couple of hours at Rufford yesterday (11.30 - 13.30) and was very pleased to welcome back two well-known Black-headed Gulls, EUM3 (Dutch bird) and P519 (Lithuanian bird). I was particularly pleased to see EUM3, as this bird is normally seen from August onwards, and I was beginning to worry that it had become a victim of this summer's avian flu epidemic. Thankfully, I was wrong!

EUM3

P519

In addition to these birds, I also spotted 273A (3rd sighting), 284A (4th sighting), 296A (my first sighting at Rufford, since ringing last winter at Center Parcs), 249B (the first sighting since being ringed at Center Parcs on 10th October 2022), S20B (a Croatian bird, first seen in December 2021) and ST301.091 (a Finnish bird - my first record at Rufford).

249B

S20B

ST301.091

UPDATE: The Finnish gull, ST301.091, was ringed, as a chick, on 16th June 2016, 1590km away!