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

Rufford - 12th October 2025

Last Sunday, I was down at Rufford for a couple of hours, and had the best session of the autumn so far with 18 ringed birds (16 of "ours", a metal-ringed bird and a brand new Dutch-ringed bird) spotted.

The 16 birds were: 2V10 (2nd sighting this autumn), 2V16 (2nd sighting this autumn), 258A (4th sighting this autumn), 273A (2nd sighting this autumn), 283B (2nd sighting this autumn), 207C (6th sighting this autumn), 245C (3rd sighting this autumn), 258C (7th sighting this autumn), 209F (1st sighting, since ringing, as a 1st winter bird, in October 2024), 214F (1st sighting this autumn), 215F (2nd sighting this autumn), 217F (2nd sighting this autumn), 221F (2nd sighting this autumn), 234F (4th sighting this autumn), 239F (2nd sighting this autumn) and 262F (1st sighting on the autumn. Last seen in December 2024). The metal ringed bird was EM21570 (2nd sighting this autumn). 

209F

214F

262F

The new, Dutch-ringed bird, was an adult, with a white darvic EV.V2. It was originally ringed, as an adult, on 7th June 2022 at Berkel en Rodenrijs, The Netherlands, by Benny Middendorp. It was reported here again on 9th June 2022, and again on 10th March 2024, before my sighting at Rufford.

EVV2

Rufford - 14th December 2024

 Every time I visit Rufford, I seem to be  spotting more and more of "our" green-ringed Black-headed Gulls. Last week's visit, was no different, with no fewer than 24 birds, spotted, including one not seen for three years!!

Birds seen were: 206A, 259A, 273A, 295A, 298A (my first sighting since being ringed in 15th December 2021, but, annoyingly, no photo!), 208B (ringed in January 2022, and this was only the second sighting, last seen at Clumber, in March 2023), 265B (ringed on 5th November 2022. This was only the second sighting, having last been seen, at Center Parcs on 2nd December 2022. This was my first sighting at Rufford),  272B, 280B (ringed by me in November 2022, and a regular visitor ever since), 202C, 207C, 258C, 264C, 270C, 298C, 207F, 219F, 223F, 230F, 234F, 239F, 255F (my first sighting, ringed on 30th November 2024, as a 3, i.e. born this year), 261F and 262F (both fist sightings, and both also ringed on 30th November 2024, as 3s).

208B

265B

255F

261F

262F

In addition, to "our" gulls, there were also approximately 250 other Black-headed Gulls, 100 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 10 Herring Gulls, Common Gulls, 22 Canada Geese, 15 Greylag Geese, 17 Gadwall (my first record for the site?) and 7 Goosander (6m and 1fm).