Today a short visit was made to the salinas near the University of Aveiro, in the hopes of finding a good number of gulls and rings. The tide was coming up, which is usually the best moment to find many gulls there. As the mudflats become inaccessible to the gulls, they’re forced into the salinas, closer to the observer. At arrival, however, no gulls were present, but small numbers of Lesser Black-backed Gulls (250) and Black-headed gulls (300) were present elsewhere in the Ria de Aveiro, well out of scope range. I suspect that these birds had either been flushed by weed-whackers, or had been scared off from the site more permanently due to the current salt harvest. Only one ring was observed but not read; a metal ring around the left tarsus of an Osprey that was first taking a bath and then dried its wings for about half an hour. Who would have thought that a bird that plunges in the water so regularly would take time for a bath? It turned out to be not the same individual as was observed wintering at this location during the previous winter (which had a large metal clip ring around its right tarsus; see the other two posts with the ‘Osprey label’).
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