Derbyshire Gulls - 26th October 2020

 I had a little "Gull Tour" yesterday, visiting two of my favourite places in search of over-wintering Black-headed Gulls. Both sites delivered!

The first site, Alvaston Park in Derby, had about 150 Black-headed Gulls (and 1 Common Gull), including 2 well known birds. The first one I saw was a Polish-ringed bird, TLPN, first seen last year (see here for details of ringing), back for its second winter.

TLPN

The second bird at Alvaston was also a returning bird, Danish-ringed VA4073, first seen in November 2018 (see here for ringing details).

VA4073

In the afternoon I drove across to Bakewell, and spotted 2 more ringed Black-headed Gulls. The first one seen here was a new bird, 2T51. This bird, an adult, had been ringed in Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria, on 19th September 2020, and my sighting was the first recorded.

2T51

The last bird see was metal-ringed EY19562, another returning bird, first seen here in November 2018 (see here). It was ringed, as a chick, at Westport Lake, Staffordshire, on 10th December 2014, so is now 6 years old.

EY19562

Gulls, Parakeets and a Swan

 Yesterday, I had my first visit to Alvaston Park in Derby since January (see here), hoping to catch up with some returning Black-headed Gulls. Unfortunately, I was too early, as there were only about 30 birds present, none of which were ringed. Whilst there, I did record 20+ Mute Swans (non ringed), 30+ Canada Geese, Coots, Moorhens, a Stock Dove and 2 Ring-necked Parakeets.

Afterwards, I drove across to Rufford CP and, despite there only being about 30 Black-headed Gulls present, I did manage to find one ringed bird, 230A, a very well known bird (see here).

230A

Also present were a couple of Mute Swans, including a male bird with a metal ring, W17328. It's a bird I've seen here before (in September 2019), and it was ringed by the Birklands Ringing Group, 3km away at Pittance Pond in Edwinstowe on 5th October 2012, as a 3 (born that year). 

Mute Swan W17328

New Year Gulls - Part 2

As well as visiting Rufford Park last week (see here), I also had a quick visit to Alvaston Park in Derby.

The trip was quite frustrating as, although there were 200+ Black-headed Gulls in and around the lake, I couldn't find any darvic ringed birds in the hour and a half I was there! Thankfully, a well known metal ringed bird, VA4073 ( a Danish-ringed bird, born in May 2018, and seen here in November 2018 and November 2019), came to the rescue.

VA4073

Whilst there, I also saw a couple of darvic ringed Canada Geese. Again, these birds were well known, having been recorded here in February 2019 (see here). The birds had originally been ringed at the University of Nottingham in 2016 and 2017.

U48

2N5

New Year Gulls - Part 1

In the first few days of 2020 I've had a couple of trips to Rufford CP to get my first sightings of darvic ringed Black-headed Gulls for the year. All the darvic-ringed birds were familiar birds, but I did also manage to find, and read, a metal ringed Swedish bird (details sent off), along with some darviced Mute Swans.

I visited Rufford on Thursday 2nd, and spotted 217A, 237A, 247A (all ringed at Center Parcs, 2km away). 247A was ringed just a few weeks ago on 21st Dec 2020 and this was my first sighting at Rufford. Also seen were: V77K (a Danish bird ringed, as a pullus, in June 2015), EUM3 (a Dutch bird ringed, as a pullus, in May 2017) and P519 (a Lithuanian bird ringed, as an adult, in April 2010), along with a new Swedish bird with metal ring number 6456037, and a British metal ringed bird with the number EL87245 (a bird I'd previously seen here in November 2019).

247A

Whilst at Rufford, I also saw 2 darviced Mute Swans, 108Y and 439Y, both birds that I'm sure were ringed by Sorby Breck Ringing Group. This is my first sighting of these birds here. I'll update the blog when I have the ringing details.

108Y and 439Y

My second visit, on 3rd January, had the same gulls as the day before, and a new one, 230A, which is a bird that was ringed at Center Parcs, on 2nd February 2019, as an adult bird, and one that I'd seen a couple of times in September 2019.

230A

UPDATE: The Swedish gull was ringed, as a pullus, 950km away in southern Sweden on 1st June 2019.

Year List Additions

Yesterday, I had another day out birding and managed to add another 8 species to my Year List for 2020.

My first stop was the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust's Attenborough Nature Reserve where I managed to add 4 new species (numbers 53 - 56), including a very cooperative  Slavonian Grebe.

Slavonian Grebe

I then drove down to Alvaston Park in Derby to check for gulls (more on that in another blog), where I added numbers 56 - 58. The Red Kite and Sparrowhawk, were added as I drove to Rufford CP.

Year List update:
53 – Egyptian Goose
54 – Slavonian Grebe
55 – Goosander
56 – Stock Dove
57 – Ring-necked Parakeet
58 – Great-spotted Woodpecker
59 – Red Kite
60 – Sparrowhawk

Alvaston Park - 16th November 2019

A couple of weeks ago I was in Alvaston Park, and spotted the Danish ringed Black-headed Gull VA4073, (see here). I was back there again today, and saw it again.

VA4073

Whilst there I also spotted a new-for-me Polish ringed bird, TLPN. This bird, originally ringed in Poland on 8th June 2019, as a pullus, was first seen here on 12th October 2019. It was very confiding, and I managed to get some lovely pictures.

TLPN

One metal ringed bird was also seen. Unfotunately, this bird, also a first winter bird (born this year), was only seen briefly, and I was only able to read the first digit of its ring, 2 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ before it flew off.  Another time perhaps!

2 _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Other birds seen were: 8 Ring-necked Parakeets, 1 Stock Dove, 20+ Canada Geese, Tufted Ducks, Coot, Moorhen, Mute Swan (8) and Common Gull (at least 3).

Common Gulls

Danish Gull VA4073 Returns

A quick trip to Alvaston Park in Derby today looking for gulls produced a Danish-ringed bird, VA4073, a bird that I first saw here in November 2018 (see here), and again in February 2019 (see here). The bird was born and ringed on the island on Hirsholm, Denmark on 26th May 2018 (911km away). When I first saw it, it was in 1st winter plumage, with a few juvenile feathers remaining, and looked like this.

VA4073 in November 2018

It looked very similar in February 2019.

VA4073 in February 2019

Today, after having undergone a full moult, the juvenile feathers were gone, and it looked like this.

VA4073 today

Black-headed Gulls - an update

Last winter was my best ever for recording darvic, colour ringed Black-headed Gulls in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, with 25 different birds seen. These birds returned to their breeding grounds in March, and so I haven't had any new sightings since then... until July.

The first sighting of this "winter" was of a possible returning bird, seen in Bakewell on 13th July (see here). Whilst going through my records I also noticed a Finnish bird that I had seen in Alvaston Park on 11th November 2018. I sent the record off and found out that the bird had been ringed 1808km away, as a pullus, on 6th June 2017.

Today I was at Rufford Country Park, Nottinghamshire, to see who was about, and I wasn't disappointed. The first bird I saw was a very familiar face, EUM3.

EUM3

Close by was a new gull, green-ringed 206A. 

206A

As soon as I saw this bird's ring colour I knew it was one that had been ringed by a member of Sorby Breck Ringing Group, as I'd had 2 other green-ringed birds ending in A, last winter (see here).  As it turned out, it had been ringed by our group on 18th December 2018, as an adult male, 4km away at Sherwood Forest Center Parcs lake. It was sighted at Rufford on 25th January 2019, and my sighting was the first of the winter. Fantastic!!

Old Friends and New

I had a bit of a "gull tour" today, visiting a couple of well known sites to see if I could catch up with some ringed Black-headed Gulls that I recorded earlier in the year (see here). As the title of this post hints, I managed to find some, but also added some new "friends" to expanding list.

First stop this morning was Rufford Country Park, in Nottinghamshire. Two of the five gulls I found two weeks ago were still around; namely EUM3, a Dutch-ringed bird and V77K, a Danish-ringed bird. Both birds were still on the lake coming to bread.

The next stop was Alvaston Park in Derby, where Jayne and I had 4 ringed gulls in November 2018 (see here). Although I only found one of these, VA4073, a Danish-ringed bird, I did find a new adult bird with the metal ring number S_ _ _ _ 70. As you can see, I only managed to get 3 of the 7 digits, so I can't say where this one came from...yet!

Whilst at Alvaston I did, however, find 2 new darvic-ringed Canada Geese - U48 (5280238) and 2N5 (5262968). Both birds had been ringed 17km away at the University of Nottingham's lake. U48 was ringed on 23/06/17, and has only been reported once, at the place of ringing, before my report. 2N5 was ringed on 09/07/16, and was recaptured on 23/06/17, at the same site, before being reported by me today (the first record away from Nottingham).

U48

2N5

Other birds seen at Alvaston were Ring-necked Parakeet (heard), Shoveler and Common Gull (c.5 adults and first winter/2nd calendar year birds).

Norwegian and Swedish Black-headed Gulls

I was back in Alvaston Park, Derby again today, looking at..... yes, you've guessed it.. Black-headed Gulls. There were still about 100 birds present on the small lake (along with at least 3 Common Gulls), but I didn't manage to see any of the 4 ringed birds I'd had at the start of November. Instead, I found 2 new ringed gulls!!

The first one I saw was another Swedish bird. Annoyingly, I only saw it for a few seconds, and only managed to get the first 4 digits of its ring number, 6439.

Swedish gull

The second bird, a Norwegian bird, with a lovely Darvic ring J3KY, was a little more confiding.

Norwegian gull, J3KY

I'm registered with the Norwegian Colour Ringing Scheme, because I reported another bird here back in December 2017 (see here), so I entered the details of this bird, and found out straight away that it had been ringed, as a pullus (chick), 1071kn away, on an island near Oslo on 15th June 2012! It has been re sighted 9  times in the intervening years, but always in Norway, and always in the summer months. Today's sighting was the first foreign sighting, and the first winter sighting.

This bird is the 12th ringed Black-headed Gull I've seen in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire since August 2018. Nationalities so far are British ringed (3), Swedish ringed (3), Danish ringed (2), Norwegian ringed (1), Finnish ringed (1), Lithuanian ringed (1) and Polish ringed (1).

Derby Black-headed Gulls

Back on 11th November, Jayne and I drove down to Alvaston Park in Derby to look for some Ring-necked Parakeets that had been reported there. We found 2 feeding high in the trees on the island in the middle of the lake.

Whilst there we were also very lucky to catch up with 4 ringed Black-headed Gulls. 3 of the gulls were metal ringed and had been ringed in Denmark, Sweden and Finland! The fourth bird had both a metal ring, and a darvic ring, and had originally been ringed in Poland.

Danish bird

The Danish bird was ringed, as a chick, on the island of Hirsholm in northern Denmark, on 26th May 2018, 917km away. 

Swedish bird 022

Unfortunately, I could only get 3 digits from the Swedish ring, so I won't be able to get any more details of this bird.

Finnish bird ST3164 _

I managed to get most of the digits from the Finnish bird's ring, just missing the last one! I've sent off the details that I could see, so hopefully, I'll be able to get some details later.

Polish bird T6TP

The Polish bird had a darvic ring, T6TP. It was ringed as "at least 2 years old" in a wetland area near the Vistula River, Plock on 21st May 2018, 1395km away.

Year List update:

201 - Ring-necked Parakeet