Rufford and Clumber - 27th November 2021

 I had a couple of hours at Rufford and Clumber this afternoon. It was cold (3 degrees and very windy) with a few snow flurries. Despite this, there were only about 100 Black-headed Gulls at Rufford and a similar number at Clumber.

Ringed birds seen at Rufford were 217A and 258A, both familiar birds. There were also a couple of Common Gulls present.

217A

258A

Clumber was also very cold and windy, and I only managed to find 1 metal-ringed Black-headed Gull, a Danish ringed individual, VAO171. I first saw this bird here in November 2018 and again in December 2020. It had originally been ringed, 872km away, on the Danish island of Hirsholm on 12th June 2015.

VAO171

Also present today, was Mute Swan Y358. Again, a familiar bird, ringed on  6th September 2019, and first seen by me at Clumber on 31st August 2021.

Y358

Also present were 1 adult Lesser Black-backed Gull and an immature/1st winter Common Gull.

Common Gull

Linacre WeBS and Ringing - November 2021

November's WeBS walk took place on 7th. Birds seen were: Mallard (95), Mandarin (23), Coot (9), Moorhen (15; 10 adults and 5 juveniles), Tufted Duck (43), Little Grebe (3), Goosander (3, 2 females and 1 male), Grey Wagtail (1) and Cormorant (2). 3 Pied Wagtails were seen on the fields by the main entrance, along with c.30 Starlings.

Our last ringing session took place on 14th November. A total of 45 birds were ringed as follows (new/retrap): Blackbird 2/0, Redwing 3/0, Blue Tit 15/4, Great Tit 4/0, Long-tailed Tit 5/0, Coal Tit 3/1, Goldcrest 2/1, Robin 1/1, Nuthatch 0/1 and Great-spotted Woodpecker 1/0.

Rufford Gulls - 30th October and 6th November 2021

 I've recently had a couple of trips across to Rufford Country Park to check on the wintering Black-headed Gulls. 

During last week's trip, on the 30th October, there were c.200 Black-headed Gulls, 6 Common Gulls and 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, along with six darvic-ringed gulls present, namely 206A, 217A, 246A, 255A, 258A, EUM3 (Dutch bird) and P519 (Lithuanian bird - first sighting this winter). Click on the labels to see details of the birds' histories. 

P519

In addition there were 6 Mute Swans, including W17328, a bird ringed just 2km away on 5th October 2012, as a 3, born that year. I also had a new Canada Goose, 5270929, which had originally been ringed at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire on 12th May 2016, as an adult. A distance of 21km and 1997 days since ringing. This was the first record since then!

It was much quieter on today's visit, with  c.100 Black-headed Gulls , 1 Common Gull and 1 Lesser Black-backed Gulls present. Ringed gulls seen were: 258A, EUM3 and JO116. The last bird was a returning bird, first seen here in October 2021 as a 1st winter bird (see here), that had been ringed, as a pullus, in Norway in 2020.

JO116

Common Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull