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 - 20th November 2022

 After a morning session of gull ringing at Center Parcs on Saturday (6 new Black-headed Gulls ringed, numbers 280B - 285B), I was back down at Rufford on Sunday for a couple of hours to see who I could see.

In the two hours, I saw a total of 13 ringed birds (from c.300 Black-headed and 4 Common Gulls), 9 darviced Black-headed Gulls (246A, 293A, 296A, 249B, 255B, 271B - new for me, 276B - new for me, EUM3and P519), 1 darviced Common Gull (JN075 - first seen in January 2022) and 3 metal-ringed Black-headed Gulls.( EL87245 (regular wintering bird, EY30536 - a bird first ringed in March 2013, just 21km away at Daneshill Landfill Site, and my second sighting, after one in Clumber in December 2020; and a new one with a ring above the "knee" on the right leg. Unfortunately, I could only get a few digits 3.876, so no chance of finding out where it was ringed - yet!).

271B

276B and JN07

In addition to the gulls, there were also four un-ringed Mute Swans.  

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

Welcome back EUM3 and P519

I had a couple of hours at Rufford yesterday (11.30 - 13.30) and was very pleased to welcome back two well-known Black-headed Gulls, EUM3 (Dutch bird) and P519 (Lithuanian bird). I was particularly pleased to see EUM3, as this bird is normally seen from August onwards, and I was beginning to worry that it had become a victim of this summer's avian flu epidemic. Thankfully, I was wrong!

EUM3

P519

In addition to these birds, I also spotted 273A (3rd sighting), 284A (4th sighting), 296A (my first sighting at Rufford, since ringing last winter at Center Parcs), 249B (the first sighting since being ringed at Center Parcs on 10th October 2022), S20B (a Croatian bird, first seen in December 2021) and ST301.091 (a Finnish bird - my first record at Rufford).

249B

S20B

ST301.091

UPDATE: The Finnish gull, ST301.091, was ringed, as a chick, on 16th June 2016, 1590km away!