Clumber and Rufford - 12th March 2023

 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!

208B

Rufford was quieter, with just 100ish Black-headed Gulls around, but I did manage to see 12 green-ringed birds; 206A, 279A, 284A, 295A, 202B, 255B, 276B, 293B, 202C, 207C, 209C, 214C and 215C and a familiar metal-ringed bird EL87245. 

In addition to 208B, I also had 2 other new birds: 209C and 214C. 209C had been ringed at Center Parcs on 22nd December 2022, as a 3, born in 2022.

209C

214C, also a 1st winter bird, born in 2022, had also been ringed at Center Parcs, on 28th December 2022. 

214C

Clumber and Rufford - 25th February 2023

 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.

TV87

TV02

Finnish bird ST339818

After Clumber, I drove across to Rufford. It was quite quiet, with just c.150 Black-headed Gulls and c.20 Common Gulls present. In amongst them were the following green-ringed gulls: 206A, 258A, 255B, 293B, 202C, 207C and 215C. Danish-ringed V77K was also present, as was British-ringed EL87245.

UPDATE: Polish-ringed bird, TV02, was ringed, as a pullus, on 12th June 2022, 1043km away.

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 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 4th and 10th December 2022

Last Sunday, 4th December, I had a quick, 1 hour, visit to Rufford. In the short time I was there, I spotted EL87245, EUM3, 271A, V77K (my first sighting this winter of this Danish-ringed bird) and a new Finnish metal-ringed bird, ST315.116 (ringing details to follow). Two other Finnish metal-ringed birds were also seen, but I couldn't get the full sequences.

Welcome back V77K

After the last few days' icy weather, I arrived at Rufford for today's visit (12.40pm - 15.10pm) to find the main lake with 95% ice cover. This meant that the gulls' legs were on show, as they perched on the ice. In total, there were approximately 2-300 Black-headed Gulls, 70(!) Common Gulls and 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls present, all bathing in the small piece of open water. 

Ringed birds seen were: 246A, 284A, 293A, 294A, 297A, 255B, 272B (my first sighting since being ringed on 12th November 2022 at Center Parcs), 276B, 278B (also my first sighting since ringing on 12th November 2022 at Center Parcs), V77K, EUM3, P519, EL87245 and last week's Finnish bird ST315.116.

272B

278B

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