Peregrine Falcon versus Black-headed Gulls at the Eirol landfill

There currently seems to be a Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus residing at the Eirol landfill. It was observed yesterday, November 17 2014, while it hunted repeatedly on the smaller birds present at the site. In search for prey it was flying through the thousands of gulls above the landfill.








It’s a 1st winter male, which appears to have a remarkably dark plumage. The head and breast of this bird are extremely dark, making me unsure about what subspecies it would belong to.






Its favorite perch is a dead branch in the top of a Eucalyptus tree, overlooking a ditch with fresh water that attracts many of the gulls and other birds present at the site, including Black-headed Gulls Chroicocephalus ridibundus. And those Black-headed Gulls are of interest to the falcon. Throughout the day we noticed it making several unsuccessful attempts to catch one. We also found some remains of a Black-headed Gull that recently had been eaten by a peregrine.




In the morning, before we realized there was a peregrine present at the site, we already noticed there were very few Black-headed Gulls present. During the past few weeks their numbers had been increasing, as many northern wintering birds were arriving. Yesterday we counted only 75 Black-headed Gulls. The number of Black-headed Gulls on previous visits is shown in the table below. At the moment many of those Black-headed gulls probably realize it’s smarter to stay away from Eirol.




Thanks to Pedro Moreira for the close up photos of the falcon!

Torreira - Sao Jacinto beached bird and mammal… and REPTILE transect (November 12, 2014)

The first Leatherback sea turtle Dermochelys coriacea we found, also the first reptile species we recorded on the transect.





Below the second Leatherback, laying on his… leather back.








The head (rotated 180°), showing some teeth. I thought these were very friendly animals.






Throughout our walk we encountered very clear tide lines.




Coastal erosion at work. It wasn’t like this a month and a half ago.




Goose barnacles Lepadidae growing on a buoy.




We noticed an increase in the amount of washed up small plastic particles, including what seemed to be some industrial plastic pellets.




Near Sao Jacinto, the beach is now almost made up entirely from plastic litter.

A special guest at the landfill

On October 4th 2014, Paul Veron (http://guernseygulls.blogspot.pt/) joined Pedro Moreira and me on a ring-reading trip to the landfill of Eirol. Due to the surprisingly large number of gulls present at the site (15 – 30.000) a record amount of rings were read. More about this event can be found on Paul’s blog in some time from now. Among all these birds was a single Herring Gull Larus argentatus.