Caspian from Poland!

Another update from the past two weeks. Absolute highlight was a c-ringed Caspian gull from Poland (waiting for details). Other nice birds included several Greater black-backed gulls from Norway, and a Dutch metal-ringed bird. Finally, in Gent, I found another (unringed) Caspian gull, and saw LBBG white H.K (RJ Buijs) again (one of the few remaining LBBG's here, most of them seem to have moved south). Also, Herring yellow N1 (RJ Buijs) is back for the winter, on almost exactly the same date as last year.

Caspian gull yellow PDBS (Polish bird, details awaited). Crappy picture, but a great bird! My best ring of this autumn so far!

Caspian gull, Leeuwenhof Gent. On both birds, the long legs (mainly tibia), slender bill and the little dark eye can be seen. On the second one some of the neck-streaking is just visible. Easy birds if they come like this!

Herring yellow 81 (RJ Buijs), Niewupoort.

Herring yellow N1 (RJ Buijs), Gent. Back for the winter, now at least for the 3rd time!

Herring blue MZA.P (E Stienen), Nieuwpoort.

Herring blue MH.AC (E Stienen), Oostende.

Herring blue FWA.V (E Stienen), Nieuwpoort.

View on the beach of Blankenberge (without gulls).

Long-tailed duck, Oostende. I went to see this bird, only a few are seen in Belgium every year, I just love these birds.

Two rings in Gent

Last week I searched for rings in Gent, and found 4 of them. 1 Belgian metal-ringed Black-headed gull, 1 Polish (unfortunately I couldn't read the ring entirely), 1 Belgian c-ringed Black-headed gull (locally ringed, but strangely this bird is still in Gent, while most other recoveries now come from abroad), but the nicest was LBBG white H.K (RJ Buijs). When I recieved the life-history, I saw that this bird had originally been ringed in Spain as orange N144, which I saw at exactly the same place in May 2003 (and this was only my second ring-reading ever!). Nice to see this one back, this bird is now 14 years old.

LBBG white H.K (RJ Buijs), originally ringed in Spain in 1998, and seen again at the same place as in 2003!

Black-headed gull yellow EHNE (G Spanoghe), ringed close to the recovery-site, but nonetheless a nice sighting.

Lots of rings

The past two weeks have been very busy, with many c-ring read. Apart from many (mainly local) Herring gulls, good numbers of LBBG's are passing through at the moment, resulting in some nice rings. Below I give a short summary of the rings from the past weeks:

Herring:
Belgian: 66
Dutch: 16
French: 1
British: 1
Total: 84

LBBG:
Belgian: 12
Danish: 6
Dutch: 6
German: 2
British: 1
French: 1
Norwegian: 1
Spanish: 1 (wingtag)
Total: 30

GBBG:
Norwegian: 5
Total: 5

Some days 100's of LBBG's were present, so still many birds have to get to their wintering grounds, all Spanish ring-readers can expect lots of birds to arrive within the following days/weeks!

And now some pictures:

Herring yellow 5B (RJ Buijs).

Herring yellow 16 (RJ Buijs).

Herring blue PSA.Y (E Stienen).

Herring blue MZA.Z (E Stienen).

Herring blue MH.AC (E Stienen).

Herring blue M.FAC (E Stienen).

Herring blue HCA.B (E Stienen).

Herring blue FX.AC (E Stienen).

Herring black/white PN A (JP Leys).

LBBG red 903N (PJ Dubois).

LBBG green Y.AKU (K Camphuysen).

LBBG blue G4 (RJ Buijs).

LBBG black E0 (RJ Buijs).

LBBG white TS8 (N van Swelm).

LBBG yellow V977 (KT Pedersen).

LBBG yellow V1PM (KT Pedersen).

LBBG blue V.E3F (KT Pedersen).

LBBG blue V.830 (KT Pedersen).

LBBG white wingtag H (Spain).

LBBG yellow H.595 (S Martens).

LBBG yellow H.249 (S Martens).

LBBG (intermedius) blue JN38 (N Lorentzen).

Norwegian intermedius

Just a short update, to mention my observation of a Norwegian Lesser Black-backed gull at the Zwin-nature reserve near Knokke. The bird was ringed black JH77, and although it was ringed in 2006, this is the first observation.

After the observation of J1LT at Le Portel last month, this is my second Norwegian bird this autumn, and my 6th in total (two of which I saw in Morocco, so only my 4th in Western Europe!).

LBBG black JH77 (N Lorentzen), ringed in 2006, and now observed for the first time.

Le Portel

Last weekend I went to Le Portel in order to look for gulls and to read rings. 100's of birds present, which resulted in no less than 161 ring-readings, of the following species:
Mediterranean gull: 134 (the bird from Serbia was still present, also some new Polish, Hungarian and German birds, the majority were from France and Belgium)
Herring gull: 14 (mainly French birds, but also 2 British birds and 1 Belgian one)
Greater black-backed gull: 9 (all from Norway)
Lesser black-backed gull: 3 (one Dutch, British and Norwegian bird)
Black-headed gull: 1 (French bird)

The black-backed gulls were mainly resting on the beach (I was surprised to see so few c-rings), and they were very wary. Herrings fed with the MedGulls between the rocks and were more easy to approach. All in all a very nice day!

Some pictures:

MedGull green 5M9.

MedGull green 125.

MedGull white 3E13.

MedGull red HLF1, one of the Hungarian birds.

MedGull red PJU7, one of the Polish birds.

Young MedGulls at Le Portel.

Herring white A6CA (British bird from R Thompson).

Herring blue P.LAJ, the only Belgian bird present (E Stienen).

LBBG black J1LT (Norwegian bird from N Lorentzen).

Santurzi - Spain

I just returned home from a great trip aboard the Pride of Bilbao. Few birds (although we saw 3 Great shearwaters), but nice views of whales and dolphins. Before taking the ferry, a short stop at the Farlington marshes near Portsmouth resulted in 4 c-ringed Icelandic Black-tailed godwits (probably all locally-ringed birds).

During the short stop in the harbour of Santurzi, I was very happy to find (totally unexpected, I even let my telescope in im cabin) 3 c-ringed Yellow-legged gulls, all from the project of Jon Hidalgo and Gorka Ocio (who was also present on board of the ship). Since I didn't have my telescope with me, so I could just take some pictures through my binoculars.

Yellow-legged gull orange 6.BFU (J Hidalgo & G Ocio)

Yellow-legged gull orange 7.BHC (J Hidalgo & G Ocio)

Yellow-legged gull orange 7BG.T (J Hidalgo & G Ocio)

Autumn migration: many rings

The past week I have been working a lot in the nature reserve "Het Zwin", on the Belgian-Dutch border. Many gulls can be present, giving me the opportunity to check them for rings. I have found already a few Dutch birds, and today some Belgian birds were present too. Apart from these, I could also read 2 different c-ringed Spoonbills, one from Germany and one from the Netherlands.

Yesterday, I visited Oostende to look for gulls. Best birds were 2 Yellow-legged gulls. However, since a part of the beach was closed off to the tourists, many gulls were coming in at low tide, giving me the chance to read more than 30 different rings in just one hour! Mainly Belgian Herrings (including many young birds, which have been ringed in the past few weeks), but also two British birds, one French one, and a few Dutch ones. Earlier on, in the habour, I saw many familiar birds, and also a few ringed LBBG's. Very nice, and totally unexpected, so I returned home very happy.

I was also informed by Juan Ruiz that LBBG red 248N, which I saw in April this year, had returned to Madrid already!

View of the beach at Oostende yesterday.

Resident British Herring white A3MM (R Thompson), already present for some years near the fish market.

Herring white A6DA (R Thompson), new bird, great to find another British bird here!


Herring blue BWAR (E Stienen), this must be one of the gulls with the most ring-readings in Belgium :-)

Herring blue KP.AM (E Stienen), another resident near the fish market.

Herring blue L.JAT (E Stienen), one of the many Herrings present.

Herring blue M.JAV (E Stienen)

Herring blue MWA.Z (E Stienen)

Herring yellow OK (RJ Buijs), also present on the beach.

Herring blue PKA.Y (E Stienen), one of the young birds present.

LBBG blue AHAW (E Stienen), in the harbour near it's breeding place.

Orange EK47 (N van Swelm), present for many years and breeding here.