Herring Gull EPM

Jayne and I were in Llandudno over the weekend. Whilst there we spotted a Herring Gull with a colour ring, EPM. I recognised it straight away as a bird I'd seen there before, in December 2016 (see here for details and ringing and subsequent re sightings).

EPM

I sent the record off, and saw that it had now been reported on the sea front at Llandudno another 6 times since my sighting. All sightings range from September to April, with mine being the earliest "winter" record, so we still don't know if it breeds elsewhere, and winters in Llandudno. It is now  9 years and 255 days since it was ringed.

Whilst in North Wales, we visited the National Trust's Bodnant Gardens again, and saw Azure and Blue-tailed Damselflies, Common Darter (mating pairs) and several Southern Hawkers. Butterflies seen were: Painted Lady (10), Red Admiral, Peacock, Speckled Wood, Small Tortoiseshell and Common Blue.

Common Darter

Azure Damselflies

North Wales' Insects

Following on from my last post about some of the insects Jayne and I saw at RSPB South Stack I thought I'd write another post to show some of the species we saw in the Happy Valley Park in Llandudno, and at the National Trust's Bodnant Garden.

First off, Llandudno. We found this small park on the base of the Great Orme and spent a couple of hours here over two days. The highlight for me was finding a new species, Brown Argus. This is  quite a tricky species to identify, but, eventually, I managed to identify both males and females.

Brown Argus (female)

Brown Argus (male)

We also had Common Blue Butterflies and a Silver Y moth here, along with another new species for me, Mullein Moth. We didn't see the moths, but we did manage to see the very colourful caterpillars.

Mullein Moth

On Tuesday, Jayne and I spent a couple of hours at Bodnant Garden, just outside Llandudno. The weather was great, very warm and sunny, and we managed to spot some damselflies including Common Blue, Azure, Large Red and Beautiful Demoiselles, all of which were breeding.

Beautiful Demoiselle (male)

Beautiful Demoiselle (female)

North Wales Weekend

The title of this post isn't quite correct, as I didn't spend the weekend in Wales, but I did have a couple of days over the Bank Holiday there with Jayne. We were based in Llandudno and had a visit to RSPB South Stack to try and catch up with a few "year ticks".

South Stack lighthouse

The "year ticks" in question were Puffin (2 seen on the water), Chough (2 seen flying around the cliffs) and Black Guillemot (1 seen in the Old Harbour in Holyhead). Other species seen included Raven, Guillemot, Razorbill, Herring Gull, Jackdaw and Linnet.

Along with the birds we were also lucky enough to see several insects, including a "lifer". The first insect we saw was Wall Brown (a minimum of 4 individuals) feeding along the cliff tops. We also spotted a Painted Lady, a Drinker moth caterpillar, a Green Tiger Beetle and, best of all, a Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary (a new species!!).

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Year List update:
149 - Puffin
150 - Chough
151 - Black Guillemot

Darviced Herring Gull

Whilst in Llandudno on Wednesday, I noticed that one of the Herring Gulls on the promenade was wearing a darvic ring.

Herring Gull (EPM)

I managed to get a few photos, and noticed that the combination of 3 orange letters over blue looked familiar. After a bit of searching I realised that this combination was the same as the Lesser Black-backed Gull I'd seen in Worcester in May this year (see here). I contacted the ringer who confirmed that it had indeed been ringed by The Severn Estuary Gull Group at a landfill site in Gloucestershire on 12th December 2009 as an adult bird. It was re sighted a couple of times on the landfill site again in November and December 2010 before moving 187km north to Liverpool, where it was seen in March 2011.  The next sighting was a year later (April 2012)when the bird had moved across to Llandudno, where it seems to have settled. It has been reported another 7 times in Llandudno in the winter months, my sighting being the most recent. It is now 7 years and 16 days since it was ringed. A summer time sighting would now be very useful.