New balcony birds

Two White storks Ciconia ciconia inspecting a potential place for their nest... in the heart of Amsterdam (De Pijp, March 30, 2018).

Gull rings at the Eirol landfill, Portugal, September 3 2013

A waste of time at the landfill? Between 7:00 – 11:30 there were about 3250 Lesser Black-backed Gulls that visited the site. I highly suspect that the amount of exposed and delivered garbage has become a limiting factor for gull numbers. Only 23 rings were read this morning, which were applied in Guernsey (13), The Netherlands (3), Great Britain (4; excluding Guernsey), France (1), Norway (1) and Spain (1; Larus audouinii).

Larus audouinii

The only ring I could find among 550+ White Storks (bird in the middle). A dirty metal ring, placed on a tarsus.

A fresh start at the Eirol landfill near Aveiro, Portugal

Today, August 21 2013, during a morning visit to the Eirol landfill near Aveiro, Portugal, 36 gull-rings were read. The number of gulls was still relatively low, I suspect about 6500, including about 6100 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 400 Yellow-legged Gulls and only a few Black-headed Gulls. The number of white storks was impressive: well over 1000 took off and left the site around noon.

 

The only colour-ringed Yellow-legged Gull observed today.

Probably the first recorded Audouin's Gull Ichthyaetus audouinii in Eirol

In between foraging trips, the birds sleep, take a bath, preen their feathers or read a magazine

Dirty, but readable ring. One of many from Paul Veron (Guernsey)

These are not gulls, but White Storks

Around noon it became too hot for me and the gulls. Only a few hundred were still present when I left the site.

Back in Aveiro...

Where spring is already in the air... Many White Storks Ciconia ciconia (like these ones today near Pardilhó) are now reconstructing their nest, as many had been blown away by a recent storm that lasted multiple days and took out many trees in the area as well. 

May 19, 2012: Danger! High voltage (and many White Storks Ciconia ciconia)

Just west of Coimbra (Portugal) we ran into a remarkable White Stork colony. As far as we could see from our location there were about 10 of these pylons being completely overtaken by nesting storks. (Thanks to Toni!)