Rufford - 6th December 2025

Last Saturday, I had a quick, 1 hour session at Rufford recording 17 of "our" darvic-ringed Black-headed Gulls.

Gulls seen were: 206A (my first sighting since March 2025), 295A (2nd sighting this winter), 272B (first sighting since January 2025), 280B (2nd sighting this winter), 202C (2nd sighting this winter), 207C (ninth sighting this winter), 215C (first sighting since March 2024 - full hood already!!), 270C (third sighting this winter), 298C (second sighting this winter), 215F (third sighting this winter), 221F (fifth sighting this winter), 234F (seventh sighting this winter), 259F (3rd sighting this winter), 292F (first sighting since February 2025), 200H (my first sighting, since ringing on 15th November 2025), 215H (first sighting, since ringing on 22nd November 2025) and 225H (first sighting since being ringed that morning). 

215C

200H

215H

225H

Also seen were: 5 Mute Swans (Broken Beak, his partner and 3 cygnets) and 10 Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

Rufford - 15th November 2025

 Yesterday, I had a couple of hours at Rufford. It had been raining very heavily for the previous twenty four hours (!), and the water levels were very high. There were only about 50 Black-headed Gulls there, but I did manage to see 8 ringed birds.

The "best" bird was 223A, a bird that was originally ringed, as an adult, on 13th February 2019. Since then, it has been recorded just 4 times in the UK, and once in Denmark, on 19th October 2025. My sighting was my first, since February 2022 (!), so was long overdue. Welcome back!

223A

Other birds seen for the first time this winter were: 280B (ringed by me, as an adult, in November 2022, and last recorded on 15th February 2025) and 298C (ringed, as a 2nd calendar year bird, on 4th February 2024 and last seen on 2nd March 2025). 

280B

298C

The other birds seen were: 207C (8th time since July), 270C (2nd sighting this winter), 221F (4th sighting this winter), 234F (6th sighting this winter) and 259F (2nd sighting, since being ringed on 18th October 2025).

"Broken Beak" was also on the water, along with his partner and 3 well grown cygnets. Other birds seen were: Grey Wagtail (1 adult an 1 juvenile), 1 Buzzard (overhead) and  a single "redhead" Goosander. 

Broken Beak and family

Rufford - 29th October 2025

 On Wednesday 29th, I popped across to The Carrs, at Church Warsop, to see if there were any ringed gulls around. I saw 2 new birds. Afterwards, I went across to Rufford, and spotted another 20 (!) ringed gulls, including P519, the Lithuanian-ringed bird, that I first saw in January 2019.

The two birds seen at The Carrs were 277C (ringed in January 2024, as an age 5, born in 2023) and 201F  (ringed in February 2024, also as an age 5).

277C

Arriving at Rufford, there were about 250 Black-headed Gulls, including a lot of birds not seen before, or not seen this winter. The highlight for me was P519, back for, at least, its 8th winter.

P519

Other birds seen were: 285A, 295A (1st sighting this winter), 269B (1st Rufford sighting), 202C (1st sighting this winter), 207C, 258C, 270C (1st sighting this winter), 273C (1st sighting this winter), 214F, 221F, 223F (1st sighting this winter), 234F, 239F, 259F (a 1st winter bird, ringed on 18/10/25), 261F (1st sighting since December 2024), 262F, 287F (my first sighting), 2V05 (1st sighting since January 25), 2V10 and 2V16.

269B

259F

287F

Other birds seen were: Kingfisher (1), Common Gull (1), Lesser Black-backed Gull (2 adults), Mute Swan (4 unringed adults) and the first Goosander of the winter (10 birds; 8 redheads and 2 males).

Common Gull