Ring Watching At Antrim Marina

Monday, 31 March 2025

Juvenile Common Gull Spotted in Spain...

Common Gull - 2HAC

On the 16th March 2025, I received an email from Paco Solera who lives in Spain. Whilst visiting a park at Costa Ballena in southern Spain the day before, he spotted a colour-ringed juvenile Common Gull on the island in the middle of the lake. Paco also attached a photo of the bird rung - 2HAC .

I had to check my records, and discovered that the ring was one of 18 that I supplied to the Copeland Bird Observatory for use on Common Gulls on the Copeland Islands in County Down. The Copeland Islands consists of three islands known as Big Copeland Island, Mew Island and the Old Lighthouse Island, the latter of which is the home of the Bird Observatory. Big Copeland Island has the largest Common Gull breeding population, but is now out of bounds under the new ownership.

Colour-rings Supplied to Copeland Bird Observatory - (Photo from Richard Donaghey)

Knowing that the gull would have been ringed as a chick in June 2024, I had to contact Steven Fyffe (who is the new ringing coordinator for the CBO), and ask for the actual ringing details. Steven duly replied to say that - 2HAC was one of two chicks ( 2HAF ) that were ringed on the Old Lighthouse Island on the 26th June 2024.

Using the coordinates (Lat & Long) supplied by Paco, I found the park and worked out the distance as being 2,002 kms / 1,244 miles (S). I knew we had something special here, and on checking the BTO's Online Ringing Reports, not only was this the second sighting ever of a British-rung Common Gull to have been recorded in Spain, but this bird had also broken the distance record for a British-rung nestling Common Gull - Summary of Ringing Totals | BTO - British Trust for Ornithology.

I submitted Paco's sighting to the BTO, and their official recovery details gave a distance of 2,001 kms (S), and the duration since being ringed, was 8 months and 17 days.

My thanks goes to Paco for his sighting report, plus allowing me to use his photo for this blog post. A truly wonderful sighting, and hopefully further sightings of this bird will come in over time.

Juvenile Common Gull - 2HAC - Costa Ballena, Southern Spain (15 March 2025)

(Ringed as a Chick, on the 26th June 2024, on Old Lighthouse Island, The Copeland Islands, Co. Down)

(Photo Courtesy of Paco Solera)

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All My Own Work

Originally, I began this blog in support of the Northern Ireland Black-headed Gull Study, which was started by Adam McClure in the winter of 2012. Having become heavily involved with his project, I eventually began searching for rings elsewhere in Northern Ireland, documenting findings through my blog. All of this, also led to my re-training as a bird ringer, and eventually, I began my own colour-ringing project in 2017, concerning Common Gulls, based mainly on Rathlin Island.

Common Gulls had become a big favourite with me, and early in 2017, I took over control of Shane Wolsey's former Common Gull project, which was based on Big Copeland Island, with birds rung there between 2009 to 2014. I'm also the ringing co-ordinator for this project too.

Sadly, through the pressures of work and family commitments, Adam had to give up on his Black-headed Gull Study in June 2018. I have taken over the role as the ringing co-ordinator for Adam's former project, and can now respond to sightings.

One of the aims of this blog, is to encourage other birdwatchers to take up the task of 'Ring Reading'. There are any amount of birdwatchers around, but dedicated ring readers are in the minority. As can be seen through my blog, although Northern Ireland is a tiny country, there are lots of rings out there to be found.

There is no copywrite concerning my blog. Anyone wishing to use any of the content, are free to do so, and an acknowledgement would be appreciated. However, photos belonging to other observers, in reality belong to them, therefore permission to use their photos can be arranged through myself.

Gareth D.A. Platt.

plattgareth@yahoo.co.uk