First juvenile Dutch Herring

Last week, a short trip to the coast resulted in the reading of my first juvenile c-ringed Herring gull of tis year. When I saw the code I immediately recognised it as a bird R.-J. Buijs and Jeroen Nagtegaal ringed on July 2nd, when I went to Vlissingen to see them at work and help them with the catching and ringing of young gulls. Great to see one of them at the Belgian coast. Other nice rings were an adult from R.-J. Buijs, and a bird ringed by the North Thames Gull Group. There also was a juvenile Meditaerranean gull, but it was not ringed, and a nice big Grey seal swimming close to the beach.

Herring gull blue C.RAB (E. Stienen), Oostende. 

Herring gull blue KP.AM (E. Stienen), this must be one of the most reported Belgian Herrings, I now saw it 28 times. 

Herring gull orange L6BT (NTTG), Raversijde.

 

Juvenile Mediterranean gull.

 

Grey seal.

First new Dutch bird

Last weekend I again visited the colonies of Zeebrugge and Oostende, with still many Herring and LBBG's present at both locations. Nearly all c-rings seen were blue ones from Belgium, but I managed to find 2 foreign birds as well: an adult French LBBG, and a juvenile Dutch bird from Roland-Jan Buijs, my first one of the year in Belgium. Let's hope more of them are on their way!

LBBG blue 0G (RJ Buijs, ringed in Belgium), Zeebrugge.

LBBG black-yellow 0.L (RJ Buijs), my first juvenile bird of the year in Belgium., Oostende.

LBBG red 168K (P. Dubois), Zeebrugge.

LBBG blue KH.AF (E. Stienen), Zeebrugge.

LBBG blue KY.AU (E. Stienen), Zeebrugge.

LBBG blue L.SAF (E. Stienen), Zeebrugge.

Herring gull blue MK.AU (E. Stienen), Oostende.

LBBG blue NYA.F (E. Stienen), Zeebrugge. Only seen once before, by Antonio Gutierrez in Spain.

Herring gull blue P.KAT (E. Stienen), Oostende.

LBBG blue TS.AS (E. Stienen), Zeebrugge.

Last one for now: Nieuwpoort

I visited Nieuwpoort on several occasions during the past weeks. Always short visits, but there are always some ringed birds around. Some pictures from my last visits below.

Herring gull Arnhem 6.171.27x (R.J. Buijs), ringed on the nest last year.

Herring gull Brussels H90172x.

Herring gull blue C.NAL (E. Stienen).

Herring gull blue P.BAG (E. Stienen).

Colonies of Zeebrugge and Oostende

Also in July, I visited (parts of) some breeding colonies in Zeebrugge and Oostende. The gulls breed in the harbours here, so access is not everywhere possible. Many c-ringed adult birds were seen, but in Zeebrugge the breeding season turns out to be quite bad, so not many chicks will be ringed. By now, the adults start to leave the colonies and the LBBG's will soon be found in Southern Europe.

LBBG orange EK47 (N. van Swelm), now in its 18th year!

LBBG black EL (R.J. Buijs), already back from the Netherlands?

 

LBBG blue D.FAY (E. Stienen). 

LBBG blue GZA.N (E. Stienen) in its colony in Zeebrugge.

LBBG orange HN5T. (NTGG), nice to see a British-ringed bird too!

Herring gull blue KU.AM (E. Stienen), Zeebrugge. The gulls breed there between the rails of the trains.

LBBG blue L.ZAG (E. Stienen).

Herring gull blue MLA.A (E. Stienen) in Zeebrugge.

LBBG blue MMA.R (E. Stienen).

 

Herring gull blue FRA.W (E. Stienen).

LBBG blue P.JAN (E. Stienen).

Herring gull blue PK.AU (E. Stienen).

Herring gull blue PL.AK (E. Stienen).

LBBG blue U.NAZ (E. Stienen) in Zeebrugge with some (its own?) chicks.

Le Portel

Earlier this summer, I visited Le Portel in northern France, in order to read as many rings as possible. This meant almost no pictures were taken, but at the end of the day I managed to get the following totals:
- Mediterranean gull: 119 rings
- Herring gull: 8 rings
- Greater black-backed gull: 1 ring
- Black-headed gull: 1 metal ring
So 129 in total, not too bad :-)

I plan to go back there later this month to read some more rings.

Mediterranean gull white 35E0 (C. Duponcheel & R. Flamant), ringed in Belgium.

 

Mediterranean gull green R11S (C. Duponcheel & R. Flamant), ringed in France.

Herring gull orange R4BT. (NTGG), ringed last November in Essex, England. 

Herring gull blue YBA.S (E. Stienen), ringed in Zeebrugge last summer.

Herring gull blue YSA.G (E. Stienen).

Herring gull blue YV.AU (E. Stienen), another Belgian bird!

Long-legged buzzard

It has bene a while since my last post, but there was a problem with adding pictures to this blog. It seems to be solved now, so I will put some updates very soon. First short post is of a very nice bird, Belgium's first Long-legged buzzard. It was present for 3 days at the beginning of July. Although it was a drive of more than 2.5 to get there, it certainly was worth the trip, what a beautiful bird! The Red kites and Black storks circling overhead were a nice bonus.
Next post will be about gulls :-)

Long-legged buzzard near Amel, July 7th 2013.

Another oldie

This week I recieved the ringing data of the British Oystercatcher I saw in Nieuwpoort this spring. It had been ringed in September 1996 in Suffolk as a bird of at least 2 years old. This means it is now at least 19 years old! I saw it mating with a Belgian-ringed bird, so surely it breeds somewhere near Nieuwpoort.

British-ringed Oystercatcher, now at least 19 years old.

Lapwing update

I just recieved the ringing details of the metal-ringed Lapwing I observed this April. It turned out to be ringed as a chick at exactly the same place, in April 1996! So this bird is now 17 years old, not too bad! I hope to see this bird again there next year.

Metal-ringed Lapwing, now 17 years old!

Vlissingen

Last week I visited the gull colonies of Vlissingen. Here Roland-Jan Buijs rings Herring and LBBG for some years now, so lots of c-ringed bird are present. In May 2010, I read more than 60 rings there on 1 day! This time it was a bit more quiet, but I managed to read about 20 rings, most of them of LBBG. It was very nice to see some birds I had seen before, and off course lots of new ones. This year, many adult birds have been caught on the nest already, and I managed to read some of these birds too. I am definately trying to go back there later this spring.
Several c-ringed Oystercatchers were present too in the vicinty of the gull colonies.

Herring gull yellow 5T (R.-J. Buijs), ringed as a chick there in 2007.

LBBG blue 29 (R.-J. Buijs).

Herring gull blue D.A (R.-J. Buijs), one of the birds that had been caught only 2 weeks before this observation.

LBBG black FL (R.-J. Buijs), ringed there as a chick in 2008.

LBBG white J.5 (R.-J. Buijs).

Herring gull yellow NX (R.-J. Buijs). 

All these Oystercatchers were locally ringed. The last 2 birds were new ones to me.