Clumber and Rufford - 16th November 2024

 On Saturday, I was out at Clumber Park, with the family. Whilst there, I had a quick check of the Black-headed Gulls and Mute Swans, finding a couple of ringed birds.

The first bird I saw was a Polish-ringed Black-headed Gull, TV02. I checked the number, and realised it was a bird I had first seen, at Clumber, back in February 2023. See the post here, for details, and a picture of this bird, as a 2nd year bird.

TV02

The second bird I saw was a ringed Mute Swan, Y404. This is a new bird for me. I'll update, when I find out where it was ringed. A single Great (White) Egret was also seen on the main lake.

Y404

After Clumber, Jayne and I had a very quick, half an hour, visit to Rufford, where I managed to spot 14 of "our" darvic-ringed Black-headed Gulls: 273A, 277A, 293A, 293B, 207C, 264C, 273C, 207F, 217F, 221F (new), 223F,  229F (new), 230F (new) and 234F (new).

221F

229F

230F

234F

P519 is back!

 I had my first visit to Rufford for a few weeks yesterday, and, in a couple of hours, I'd spotted 22 ringed birds; 21 of "ours" and a familiar face, P519.

P519 is a Lithuanian-ringed bird (ringed, as an adult, on 1st April 2010, 1,456km away). I first spotted this bird in February 2019, although it had been seen here, by other observers, in January and November 2018. It has been seen every winter since then. Yesterday's sighting was the first of the winter.

P519

Other ringed gulls were: 255A, 258A, 259A, 277A, 293A, 295A, 242B (my first sighting), 202C, 207C, 245C, 246C (my 1st sighting), 258C, 264C, 270C, 273C, 207F, 214F, 217F, 219F, 220F, 223F and 225F (all the F birds are my 1st sightings).

Other birds seen were: Greylag Geese (c150, including  a ringed bird, 5230485, which had been ringed in April 2024), Canada Geese (c.100), 6 Mute Swans (Broken Beak, his partner and 3 cygnets, plus another adult female) and 1 adult Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Rufford Gulls

 I've had a couple of visits to Rufford recently, on the 12th March and today.

The visit on 12th had just 50 Black-headed Gulls, but did include several colour-ringed birds, namely 258A, 277A, 284A, 294A and 202B.

Today's visit was much quieter with just 20 Black-headed Gulls present and just JO116 ( a Norwegian-ringed bird) seen.