Odd shot

Larus argentatus Y.BAJ @ Schiphol Airport, March 21 2018, 12:30 (http://timvannus.blogspot.nl/2015/09/herring-gull-ybaj-schiphol-airport.html)

Herring Gull YBAJ @ Schiphol airport. September 29 2015, 11:50 AM

Eirol landfill, Portugal (January 12, 2015)

One of two adult Herring gulls Larus argentatus present at the site.




Herring gull number two.




Ringed Mediterranean gull Ichthyaetus melanocephalus, from Véron, les Prés Pendus, Yonne, FRANCE 48,07N 3,17E. One of two birds observed.




A Pied wagtail Motacilla alba yarrellii (top) and white wagtail M. a. alba (bottom).




The only signs of the young Peregrine falcon Falco peregrinus that resided at the landfill for some time (see previous posts) were 10 older remains of Black-headed Gulls Chroicocephalus ridibundus…

...and, remarkably, the remains of a 1st winter Lesser Black-backed Gull Larus fuscus. Not a common prey for a Peregrine.

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.

Photos from the island Rottumerplaat: July 1 - August 8th (the end)

 Herring Gull Larus argentatus, with part of its tongue sticking out of its throat (for Antonio’s collection)

 Incubating Arctic Tern Sterna paradisaea

Colour-ringed Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia. After this season I don’t see the point anymore in reading Dutch colour-ringed Spoonbills, since I rarely get a reply on these reports.

 

Beached Northern Gannet Morus bassanus

 

Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica chicks in their nest.

  

D.I.Y. paradise

 

Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus (in the back) overlooking potential prey

 

Good reproduction this year for Herring Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull Larus fuscus

 

Not all large gull chicks made it to fledging. One of our four Marsh Harrier Circus aeruginosus nests (after the harrier chicks fledged), containing remains of several large gull chicks.

Lost racing pigeons, all hatched in 2014, and a rabbit born in the same year

 

Beached Greater Black-backed Gull Larus marinus

 

 

 Common Swifts Apus apus sheltering on our observation tower for incoming bad weather

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.

E-gull, today @ 't Zuiderduin

E-gull and friends.

Unread Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps).

'Bang on!'

Colour-ringed Herring Gull Larus argentatus @ het Zuiderduin

Seen there and read by me today, for a second time this spring. We met before in 2011 when this gull could be read repeatedly during the summer. Colour-rings: LW/GY, ringing place: NL Schiermonnikoog, Oosterkwelder 5329N-0609E, ringing age: nestling, ringing date: 16-07-05 sex: unknown, ringer: Otto Overdijk. The bird on the right is a Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres.

Eirol landfill, February 19, 2013: the last of this winter's visits, and the terror birds are back!

This entry is about my most recent visit to the Eirol landfill (February 19), during which I was hoping to gain a good final number of color-ring sightings, as it would be my last visit to the site for this winter. There were still plenty of gulls present (about 16.000 Lesser Black-backed gulls Larus fuscus), but as mentioned before the ring-reading conditions there are not as good as they once were at Taboeira: rings get dirty more easily, birds are harder to observe from the right angles, and many of their roost sites are out of sight for me.
This time things were a bit different, primarily because the first Black Kites Milvus migrans have returned from their wintering quarters in Africa. These kites continuously flushed the gulls from their hidden roost sites, forcing them to perch at different locations, allowing me to see their rings more easily. A total of 58 color-rings were read and these had been applied on Lesser Black-backed Gulls in Britain (excl. Guernsey) (19), Guernsey (18), The Netherlands (10), Norway (3), Germany (2), France (2), Denmark (2) and Belgium (2).
British birds seemed to be dominating the site. I noticed a similar situation taking place a year ago at Taboeira, when during the second half of February the number of British gulls appeared to increase while those originating from other NW European countries decreased. This will undoubtedly have something to do with the gulls’ spring migration movements, as the majority of the birds will already be on their way to their breeding grounds further to the north. I will be following some of them in a few weeks from now.

 

The first of three Black Kites that showed up during the day…

…and the mass-hysteria among the gulls that always seems to follow the appearance of a kite.

These kites were more than capable of expelling the gulls from the large mound of sand that is located at the east side of the landfill. They’re more than welcome to do so, as this allowed me to observe a lot more gulls in places where their rings could actually be read...

I.e. on the roads right next to the observer.

And this time the birds roosting in the pit were too afraid to kneel down, so there were plenty of legs to scope out.

Then of course it’s important that the ring itself allows proper reading and its inscription is not either too worn or too dirty. I'm not sure where this one came from, but it's probably British.

A new one for me; Chris Perrins’ GREEN TA, with a tiny and dirty WHITE inscription (vertical inscription; top – bottom). Also very British.

Philippe Dubois’ RED 974K with a WHITE inscription, from France. Well, initially there was a white inscription visible on this ring; nowadays you'll have to get very close to this bird for a proper reading.

RED TB5.T, BLACK inscription, a bird from Paul Roper & the North Thames Gull Group, is showing an unmarked companion how to drink dewdrops in the early morning.

 David Sowter’s BLACK WC3W, YELLOW inscription; very condensed inscription, but in the end Britannia ruled the waves at the landfill.

Apart from color-ring reading I spent some time inspecting gull carcasses again. Unfortunately for Mike Marsh the only bird from him that got reported from Eirol was this LBBG RED AZ.AC, WHITE inscription (metal BTO GR20352). It was ringed as a pullus on the 4th of July 2010, on Havergate Island, Orford, Suffolk. Afterwards it got reported regularly by others in Faro (Portugal), once from Torreira, and a few times by me from the former Taboeira landfill. An additional two British ‘metal only’ LBBG’s were found. A broken wing had been the initial cause of death for all of these three gulls.

Besides the resightings, the overall birding turned out to be very good again. It all started off with an adult male Marsh Harrier Circus aeruginosus patrolling the site for a while. It caused some disturbance among the gulls, but nowhere near as much as the first kite that would show up an hour later.

A single Mediterranean Gull Ichthyaetus melanocephalus among Black-headed Gulls Chroicocephalus ridibundus and one Lesser Black-backed Gull.

A Pied Wagtail Motacilla alba yarrellii, which I consider to be part of the British invasion of the landfill as well.

I also ran into this strange looking bird, presumably a female Herring Gull Larus argentatus. Considering the number of gulls I see on a regular basis, the number of rarities that get reported by me (compared to those reported by my ‘gull friends’ from the Iberian Peninsula) seems to be rather low. I suspect that I spent too much time scoping out gull legs instead of gulls themselves, so I probably miss out on a lot of fun. Still, Herring Gulls are rare in this part of the world, but in a few weeks from now I’ll have plenty of them flying around my head and they will appear normal again.