2738 gulls and one ring

Yesterday (April 25) all Herring - and Lesser Black-backed Gulls present on or above the island Rottumeroog were counted. Among the 1194 Herring Gulls and 1544 Lesser Black-backed Gulls that were counted was this colour-ringed LBBG, which was present at the North Sea beach (ORANGE VB6.T, BLACK inscription)...

It turned out this bird was ringed as an adult on February 11, 2012, at the Rainham Tip in Greater London. In March of that year it was seen on Rottumeroog twice, so it probably is a bird that is resident to this area in summer.

Winter in the tropics; Amsterdam, January 19 & 20

Last weekend I spent a lot of time in a cold and snowy park in Amsterdam North, in order to find out how many Ring-necked Parakeets currently roost in the northern part of the city. Sunday’s count was part of a national count, the second for this winter, but I figured it would be smart to find out what to expect and conduct an extra count the night before the official count, as I always prefer to do.

On Saturday I counted 823 birds in a relatively compact group, divided over five trees. The following day, when I was joined by Ruud Vlek, the moment of the bird’s arrival to the roost site (at dusk) coincided with a snow storm. Thankfully, it was not as cold as the previous day and, when not facing the direction of the wind, we still managed to conduct a proper count. Unfortunately, a large number of parakeets decided not to fight the storm and these slept elsewhere, probably closer to their foraging areas (although that same night a keen observer noted elsewhere that at least one parakeet decided to roost in a nest hole). Ruud and I counted only 270 birds, divided up into relatively small groups that occupied trees, at a much greater distance from each other.

So, although Sunday’s count will not have resulted in a complete picture of the number of parakeets present in the area, we did learn something about the bird’s behavior during the harshest days of the year.  

A few winters ago the roost site was being used by a few thousand parakeets, coming from all wind directions, in particular from the south and east. In order to reach the roost site these birds had to cross a large lake (‘the IJ’) behind the Central Station. This went without a problem for a few years, but the appearance of Peregrine Falcons on the former Shell tower/Overhoeks (overlooking the IJ and in between this lake and the roost site) probably has deterred these birds from roosting in Amsterdam North. By now a number of Peregrine prey remains have been collected from the tower, including an interesting number of parakeets. At least one falcon was present on the 19^th.

A photo from January 2012; The IJ and on the right the rock that's in the way of many parakeets. The parakeets' roost site is located to the right of the tower.