Rufford Gulls - 9th March 2024

 At this time of the year, I'm never sure when I'll see the last of the wintering Black-headed Gulls at Rufford. Last Saturday I popped across and found about 80 still present, including many looking very smart, with their breeding plumage brown (not black!) hoods.

The first bird I saw, was 215C, and this bird was certainly looking smart. Last year, my last sighting of this bird was on 12th March, so this may be my last sighting until after the breeding season. We've not had any sightings at a breeding site yet. This year perhaps?

215C

Other ringed gulls were: 258A (34th re-sighting), 289A (6th re-sighting, and my first since February 2022!), 202C (13th re-sighting), 207C (15th re-sighting), 258C (8th re-sighting), 270C (4th re-sighting), 273C (6th re-sighting) and 298C (ringed on 4th February 2024, as a 5, i.e. born in 2023, and the first re-sighting since).

298C

Other birds seen were: 21 Goosander (16 female and 5 male), 1 male Pochard, 2 Mute Swan (Broken Beak and a female), 13 Greylag Geese, 5 Canada Geese, 37 Lesser Black-backed Gull and 2 Common Gull.

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!