Mediterranean Gulls
Friday 22nd May 2009
This afternoon at WWT there was a total of three Mediterranean Gulls on South Lake, all first-year birds. First, I spotted the bird in the photo above, sporting a green ring on its left leg marked '0M8'. Checking the European Colour-ring Birding website indicates this bird was one of 33 young birds ringed in the Seine-Marne area of France (east of Paris), which carried the alphanumeric codes 0M0 - 9M9 on green rings. I then spotted the bird I saw last Saturday, instantly recognisable by its eye-mask and vermilion bill; this is it in the photo below, just before all the gulls took off at 15:10. The other two Meds came back but I didn't see this one return.
The third was this one below, which I recognise from The Gloster Birder site as the one photographed by Richard Tyler last Sunday.
Here's a photo of birds 1 and 3 together:
Here's a couple more Med photos:
There wasn't much from Middle Point earlier between high and low tide, just two Whimbrels, five Curlews, 80 Shelducks, a Peregrine and two Oystercatchers.
This morning, after completing my BBS survey at Hardwicke, I spent some time in the forest, at Woorgreens/Crabtree Hill, noting a Pied Flycatcher, a Wood Warbler, seven Garden Warblers (photo above) five Willow Warblers, three Blackcaps, two Tree Pipits, a Buzzard and a Stock Dove.
This afternoon at WWT there was a total of three Mediterranean Gulls on South Lake, all first-year birds. First, I spotted the bird in the photo above, sporting a green ring on its left leg marked '0M8'. Checking the European Colour-ring Birding website indicates this bird was one of 33 young birds ringed in the Seine-Marne area of France (east of Paris), which carried the alphanumeric codes 0M0 - 9M9 on green rings. I then spotted the bird I saw last Saturday, instantly recognisable by its eye-mask and vermilion bill; this is it in the photo below, just before all the gulls took off at 15:10. The other two Meds came back but I didn't see this one return.
The third was this one below, which I recognise from The Gloster Birder site as the one photographed by Richard Tyler last Sunday.
Here's a photo of birds 1 and 3 together:
Here's a couple more Med photos:
There wasn't much from Middle Point earlier between high and low tide, just two Whimbrels, five Curlews, 80 Shelducks, a Peregrine and two Oystercatchers.
This morning, after completing my BBS survey at Hardwicke, I spent some time in the forest, at Woorgreens/Crabtree Hill, noting a Pied Flycatcher, a Wood Warbler, seven Garden Warblers (photo above) five Willow Warblers, three Blackcaps, two Tree Pipits, a Buzzard and a Stock Dove.
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