On Sunday the 30th May 2021, I finally made it onto Big Copeland Island for the second time ever, my first visit having been made last year on the 16th June. During that visit last summer, I met a man who shares a property on the island, and he has now became my boatman. We had planned to go out earlier in May, but this had to be postponed due to poor weather. My boatman, who for now at least, prefers to remain anonymous, fully appreciated what I was doing on the island and is only too willing to help me further my efforts with the Common Gulls on the island.
I am attempting to read the colour-ringed Common Gulls from Shane Wolsey's former project on the island, which ran from 2009 until 2014. I have permission from the landowner, Alan McCulla to visit the island at any time, plus that of the Copeland Bird Observatory, to carry on with Shane's former project, by ringing chicks using my own metal and colour-rings. I have always believed that there are many surviving adult birds, which have never been recorded from the day they were ringed, and between last summer and today's visit a small number of such birds have been re-sighted.
During my visit to the island today, plenty of Common Gulls were sitting tight on their nests, though a few newly hatched chicks were also seen. It was a hot and sunny day, which unfortunately produced a very bad heat haze. Trying to photograph colour-rings presented me with a couple of problems, the worst being, my attempts to capture the indented codes on darvic's which are supposed to be blue, but have deteriorated to such a degree, they now appear to be white.
Despite photographing a number of colour-ringed gulls, just eight were confirmed, three of which were first ever re-sightings. With many females sitting on their nests, there will be more colour-rings to record at some point. I did not have the time to estimate the size of the Common Gull breeding population, but there are several hundred pairs, some of which I discovered were nesting within the Herring Gull colonies. On the whole, most Common Gulls nested within their own colonies, and Arctic Terns obviously were using these Common Gull colonies as protection for their own nests. It seems that there are more Arctic Terns nesting here this year, as compared to my visit last summer. This also presented me with problems, as I had to keep disturbance of this species to a minimum.
Going through my eight colour-ring sightings in colour and code order, the first bird is - 2ACF . The sighting of this gull turned out to be a very interesting record. It was ringed as a chick, on the 14th June 2005, here on Big Copeland Island, and was ringed with just a metal ring. It went un-recorded until the 14th May 2010, when it was caught as an un-sexed breeding adult and the colour-ring - 2ACF was fitted. Despite having an easily read ring, the gull still eluded detection until I photographed it today. The duration since being ringed, is now a nice 15 years, 11 months and 16 days.
Common Gull - 2ACF - Big Copeland Island, The Copeland Islands, Co. Down (30 May 2021)
(Ringed as a Chick, on the 14th June 2005, on Big Copeland Island)
2ACV is a bird that I'm really delighted to find nesting here on Big Copeland Island, and this is the 18th re-sighting record for the gull. It was ringed as a chick on the island, on the 28th May 2010. Before today, I had recorded - 2ACV on four other occasions, on the seafront at Millisle - 8kms / 5 miles south of Big Copeland, all of which were made in the months of June or July after the breeding season had ended. The sighting also completes a full circle, now that the bird has been proven to breed on it's natal site.
Having been ringed in 2010, the first ever re-sighting was made on the 15th September 2013, when Graham Prole recorded the gull wintering in the Broadmeadows area in Swords, Co. Dublin. Over the years since, 2ACV has been recorded wintering in the same area by several observers. It has now been 11 years and 2 days, since - 2ACV was ringed. The full re-sighting history can be viewed (here).
Common Gull - 2ACV - Big Copeland Island, The Copeland Islands, Co. Down (30 May 2021)
(Ringed as a Chick, on the 28th May 2010, on Big Copeland Island)
2ADX is another gull that I'm very familiar with, whose re-sighting history has also gone full circle, now that I've recorded it breeding here at it's natal colony. The bird was ringed as a chick, on the 1st June 2010, and all 25 previous re-sightings have been made on the Millisle seafront 8 kms / 5 miles (S). It is a winter resident at Millisle, as over the years, sightings have covered every month of the year. On the 7th June, I recorded - 2ADX back at Millisle with many other Common Gulls. This took the duration since being ringed, to 11 years and 6 days. The full re-sighting history for - 2ADX can be read (here).
Common Gull - 2ADX - Big Copeland Island, The Copeland Islands, Co. Down (30 May 2021)
(Ringed as a Chick, on the 1st June 2010, on Big Copeland Island)
The sighting of - 2ANC , is the first ever since the gull was ringed here as a chick, on the 23rd June 2012. Good to see that the condition of the ring is fairly reasonable. The duration since being ringed, is now 8 years, 11 months and 7 days. Hopefully, it will be spotted at it's wintering quarter's some day.
Common Gull - 2ANC - Big Copeland Island, The Copeland Islands, Co. Down (30 May 2021)
(Ringed as a Chick, on the 23rd June 2012, on Big Copeland Island)
Another first ever sighting was that of - 2APA . It was ringed here on the island, on the 29th June 2013. The duration since being ringed, is now 7 years, 11 months and 1 day. I still finding it amazing, that some gulls can travel about un-recorded during the winter months. These first ever sightings, can only add to survival rate studies, proving how valuable such records are.
Common Gull - 2APA - Big Copeland Island, The Copeland Islands, Co. Down (30 May 2021)
(Ringed as a Chick, on the 29th June 2013, on Big Copeland Island)
2HSJ , was the third of my first ever re-sightings. Ringed here on the island as a chick, on the 11th June 2012, the duration is now 8 years, 11 months and 19 days. Again, I'm pleased to see that the ring is still in reasonable condition, which will help with future re-sightings.
Common Gull - 2HSJ - Big Copeland Island, The Copeland Islands, Co. Down (30 May 2021)
(Ringed as a Chick, on the 11th June 2012, on Big Copeland Island)
The sighting of - 2AA4 , was a first for me personally, but there has been one previously sighting record for this bird. 2AA4 , was ringed as a chick here on Big Copeland Island, on the 6th June 2009. The gull was recorded at Cunnigar, near Dungarvan, County Waterford, on the 7th November 2015. The sighting was not among project work given to me by Shane Wolsey, concerning his former Copeland study. I actually discovered this record on the BTO's Online Ringing Report for 2015. At that time, the duration was 6 years, 5 months and 1 day, and the distance to Cunnigar, was 320 kms / 198 miles (SSW).
From the ringing data that I received from Shane, only 33 of these yellow darvic's were ever used, before Shane switched to using the blue darvic's. The main reason for the switch, was that yellow is harder to notice on the legs of the Common Gulls. A second reason, which I do not think that I've ever mentioned, was that these yellow darvics arrived in 'flat form', and had to be heated before being shaped. This process would put any ringer 'off' from using them.
My sighting of - 2AA4 today, now takes the birds duration to 11 years, 11 months and 24 days. Hopefully, I will record this gull again in the next couple of weeks. It would be nice to see the duration passing the 12 year mark. Again, these yellow darvics are in reasonably good condition and will aid further sightings in the future.
Common Gull - 2AA4 - Big Copeland Island, The Copeland Islands, Co. Down (30 May 2021)
(Ringed as a Chick, on the 6th June 2009, on Big Copeland Island)
My final Common Gull of the day, is that of - 2AAN . As can be seen in the photo, the code has 'smudged' very badly. I had actually seen a clear section of the ring when I spotted the bird with my telescope, but it flew off before I could 'train' my camera onto it. When the bird returned, I captured the featured photograph. Looking at the code, it could possibly have been - 2AAH , but - 2AAH has yet to be re-sighted from the day it was ringed, whereas - 2AAN , has two previous re-sightings.
2AAN , as was - 2AAH , were caught and ringed as un-sexed breeding adults here on Big Copeland Island, on the 18th May 2009. It's first ever re-sighting, was made by Suzanne Belshaw, on the 27th July 2016 (7y, 2m & 9d), at Whitehouse Lagoon on the edge of Belfast - 23 kms / 14 miles (W) from the island.
The second re-sighting was made by me, on the 10th November 2018 (9y, 5m 23d), at Kinnegar Beach on the southern shore of Belfast Lough - 21 kms / 13 miles (W). The duration as of today's sighting, is now 12 years and 12 days. Hopefully, I'll record this one again over the next few weeks, just to clarify the code.
Common Gull - 2AAN - Big Copeland Island, The Copeland Islands, Co. Down (30 May 2021)
(Ringed as an Un-Sexed Breeding Adult, on the 18th May 2009, on Big Copeland Island)
Every so often, I would give the Common Gulls and inadvertently the Arctic Terns some peace and quite. I moved off into the mixed Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gull colonies to see if I could spot any colour-rings, and recorded three Herring Gulls which had been ringed on Big Copeland.
The first of these, was a bird that I also recorded on Big Copeland, on my first ever visit to the island in June 2020, after the easing of the first 'Lockdown'. 1K:W , was ringed as an un-sexed breeding adult, on the 6th May 2015. Before that sighting, it had been recorded on three previous occasions :- 31st August 2015 on the seafront at Donaghadee by Suzanne Belshaw, by me, on the 4th February 2017, also on the seafront at Donaghadee, and again by me, at the North Beach of Millisle on the 17th October 2017. Donaghadee is just 2 kms / 1 mile (S) of Big Copeland, whereas Millisle's north beach is 6 kms / 3 miles (S). Today's re-sighting, takes the duration to, 6 years and 24 days.
Herring Gull - 1K:W - Big Copeland Island, The Copeland Islands, Co. Down (30 May 2021)
(Ringed as an Un-Sexed Breeding Adult, on the 6th May 2015, on Big Copeland Island)
The sighting of - 2H:W , was a first for me personally, but what an interesting one this turned out to be. The gull was originally ringed as a chick with a metal only, on Big Copeland Island, on the 29th June 2007. The bird went un-recorded until the 5th May 2015, when it was caught and colour-ringed here as an un-sexed breeding adult. By this time, the duration since being ringed, was 7 years, 10 months and 6 days.
Until today, there had been just a single re-sighting of the gull with it's colour-ring having been read. A Katherine Stewart observed the gull at Bangor Harbour in County Down on the 25th May 2016. The duration at that time, was 8 years, 10 months and 26 days, with Bangor Harbour lying 8 kms / 5 miles (W) of Big Copeland Island. My sighting today, now takes the duration to, 13 years, 11 months and 1 day.
Herring Gull - 2H:W - Big Copeland Island, The Copeland Islands, Co. Down (30 May 2021)
(Ringed as a Chick, on the 29th June 2007, on Big Copeland Island)
The sighting of - 4N:W , was a first ever, since the gull was ringed as an un-sexed breeding adult here on the island, on the 6th May 2015. The duration for this one, is now 6 years and 24 days. I was extremely lucky to get this one, as the gull was very far away. Zooming down from a hillside, I went deep into digital mode and had to contend with heavy 'heat haze', but the end result was worth it. From what I'm led to believe, there is to be a continuation of this ringing project on the islands from this summer onwards. There may well be some identification problems if chicks are to be ringed, as Lesser Black-backed Gulls are nesting amongst the Herring Gulls, though it has not been made clear, whether adults only are to be ringed.
Herring Gull - 4N:W - Big Copeland Island, The Copeland Islands, Co. Down (30 May 2021)
(Ringed as an Un-Sexed Breeding Adult, on the 6th May 2015, on Big Copeland Island)
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