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 - 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

Rufford CP - 9th October 2022

Gull numbers had increased since my last to Rufford a couple of weeks ago, and there were approximately 100 Black-headed Gulls and 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull present.

4 ringed birds were seen: 246A, 258A, 281A and 293A. All birds had been seen at Rufford in previous winters (click on the labels for details). 

246A

258A

293A

281A, however, was a particularly good record, as it the first record from this winter, and had last been in Oslo, Norway, on 22nd April 2022.

281A

Rufford - 21st February 2022

 After the wet and very windy weekend I went down to Rufford yesterday afternoon. There were about 100 Black-headed Gulls (and 1 Common Gull).

Ringed birds seen were: 281A, 289A, 293A, 294A, 295A, 297A, 207B and JO116 (Norwegian bird). In addition, there were 12 Mute Swans (9 adults, including W17328, and 3 juveniles - born last year). 

289A and 207B were new birds. 289A was originally ringed on 8th December 2021, at Center Parcs, 2km away, whilst 207B was ringed at the same site on 8th January 2022. Both birds had been born in 2021, and yesterday's sightings were the first since ringing.

289A

207B

In addition to these sightings, news came through last week of Black-headed Gull 237A. This bird was ringed at Center Parcs on 20th November 2019, as a 1st winter bird, born in 2019. It was a regularly seen bird during the winters of 2019 and 2020, with the last UK sighting in January 2021. Last week's news was a report from may 2021, when it was seen, over 2000km away, in Novgorod, Russia!

Rufford - 5th February 2022

 I spent yesterday morning at Rufford Country Park. I got there earlier than I usually do, so that I could walk across the the Abbey and have a look for some Hawfinches. It was a little windy, but I managed to get  brief views of 2 birds in the trees around the car park. Walking back through the park, I also spotted 15 Redwings, a large flock of Siskin, 1 Grey Heron, 14 Goosander (8 females and 6 males), 1 Little Egret (my first record for this site), 6 Mute Swans (3 adults and 3 young birds, including W17357) and a whopping 66 Common Gull.

Also on the water were approximately 150 Black-headed Gulls. I spotted 12 darvic-ringed birds: 223A (first ringed in February 2019, and my first sighting since October 2020), 258A, 264A (ringed in February 2020, and the first sighting since), 281A (3rd sighting, since ringing in December 2021), 293A (5th sighting), 294A (first sighting), 295A (2nd sighting), EUM3 (Dutch bird), P519 (Lithuanian bird), JO116 ( Norwegian bird) and 204B, a new bird, first ringed in January 2022. In addition, I also saw the Norwegian-ringed Common Gull JN075.

264A

294A

204B

The Hawfinches were a new bird for the year and bring Year List to 103, following Raven and Chough, that I saw last week in Wales.

Year List update:

101 - Raven

102 - Chough

103 - Hawfinch

Rufford Gulls - 6th January 2022

After a short visit to Rufford on Wednesday, I decided to go back again yesterday. It had been very cold overnight, and more than half of the lake was covered in ice - always a good sign when checking gulls' legs!!

As soon as I got there, I could see that there were 400+ gulls out on the ice! The vast majority were Black-headed Gulls, with a minimum of 10 Common Gulls, 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and 1 Herring Gull. Over the course of 3 hours, I managed to spot 12 darvic-ringed Black-headed Gulls (217A, 258A, 273A, 279A, 281A, 293A, 295A, 297A, J0116, EUM3, P519 and V77K), 1 metal ringed Black-headed Gull (EL87245- a well known bird) and a new darvic ringed Common Gull (JN075 - an adult bird, ringed on 12th August 2020, near Oslo, Norway).

JN075

Of the 12 darviced birds, just 3 were new ones, I'd not seen before (279A, 295A and 297A). All are birds ringed at Center Parcs this winter.

279A

295A

297A

In addition, there were 13 Mute Swans ( 9 adults and 4 juveniles, born last year), including a 1 metal ringed bird (W17357 - a bird that had been ringed on 10th February 2016, as a 5 i.e. born in 2015) and a darvic-ringed bird (CPF3/W48296 - another new bird, originally ringed as a 3 male, i.e. born that year, in Cheshire, on 16th November 2019).

CPF3

Rufford Gulls - 12th and 23rd December 2021

Here are the details of my last two visits to Rufford CP, including some old favourites, and a brand new Black-headed Gull.

First up, the visit on the 12th that included the following gull: 206A, 217A, 258A, 273A, 282A, 293A, EL87245, P519, EUM3 and V77K. All known birds, except 282A and 293A, which had been ringed at Center Parcs the week before.

Yesterday's visit, on the 23rd, saw the following birds reported: 217A, 258A, 281A, 284A, 293A, 299A, V77K, EUM3, P519, JO116, EL87245 and S20B. Again, many familiar birds, with the exception of 281A, 284A and 299A (all ringed this winter at Center Parcs), and S20B. Looking on the internet, this bird appears to have been ringed in Zagreb, Croatia, on 2nd February 2012. If confirmed, this will be my first record of a bird from this country, and only the second record of this bird since ringing! The only other record was in Austria in February 2012, shortly after having been ringed.

S20B