Today I visited Taboeira again to see which of the known landfill gulls are still there and which new ones have appeared. By now, many of the Lesser Black-backed Gulls I resighted there this winter have made their way back to their breeding areas in NW-Europe. There are still a lot of birds present but the conditions to read off colour-rings are not getting any better; the Black Kites are getting more and more abundant and these repeatedly flush the gulls. The visit resulted in only 5 colour-ring readings; 3 Lesser Black-backed and 2 Black-headed Gulls. A record low for the location.
The birds only made a few 'touch downs' in the active dump
site and refused to sit on the slopes almost completely.
The bigger dots are Black Kites; the smaller ones are gulls which are too afraid
to come down. The number of kites increases during the day. As I left early today I only counted about 25 kites; employees informed me they observed about 50 kites yesterday. It seems they are still increasing...
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