Ringing Update...

Ringing Details Received

Black-headed Gull - White EAK9

On Christmas Day, I re-sighted the Dutch 'Darvic-ringed' Black-headed Gull - White EAK9 - at the Connswater Shopping Centre in Belfast.  My first sighting of this gull was on the 17th October 2015, at Victoria Park, which is situated a short distance away from Connswater.

I emailed the ringer, Benny Middendrop, to inform him of my latest sighting.  Benny replied and attached an updated file for this bird.  There has been no other recent sightings of this gull, other than mine.

My thanks to Benny for the update and I have decided to add the file onto the Blog.  It demonstrates, just how useful colour-rings are as a means of recording a birds re-sighting history.

Re-sightings 0f Black-headed Gull  -  White EAK9

Common Gull  -  Yellow 2A60

On Christmas Eve, during my visit to the east coast of County Down, I spotted a 'Darvic-ringed' Common Gull   2A60  at a car park in Millisle.  On returning home and checking the cr-birding website, I discovered that this gull was ringed by the Clyde Ringing Group in Scotland and I emailed the ringing secretary Iain Livinstone.

Iain replied to my email, to state that this gull was ringed as a chick on the 7th July 2013, at Hunterston on the Ayrshire coast.  My sighting was the first since it was ringed.  The distance from Hunterston to Millisle is 132km / 82 miles in a south-west direction.

My Thanks to Iain for the info and he really enjoyed the photo that I took of the Common Gull.

Hunterston, Ayrshire to Millisle, Co. Down

Black-headed Gull - Red 2E18

On Boxing day, I travelled up to the north coast visiting Portrush, Portstewart and Coleraine.  While at the Strand Road Jetty in Coleraine, I spotted two 'Darvic-ringed' Black-headed Gulls.  White J9J2 was from Norway and I was able to obtain it's ringing details from the Norwegian colour-ringing website (see my last post).

The second BHG was   2E18 .  Checking on the cr-birding website, I discovered that this was another gull ringed by the Clyde Ringing Group in Scotland.  I sent another email to the ringing secretary Iain Livingstone, hot on the heels of reporting the sighting of the Common Gull -   2A60  - at Millisle.

  2E18  was ringed as a chick in the Elvanfoot area in South Lanarkshire, Scotland on the 24th June 2014.  My sighting is the first since this gull was ringed.  The distance is roughly 194km / 120 miles in a west-south-west direction.  It will be interesting to see if this gull appears again next winter in Coleraine.

My thanks again to Iain for supplying the details.

Elvanfoot, South Lanarkshire to Coleraine, Co. Londonderry

Oystercatcher - FH84092

I have received an email from The British Trust for Ornithology concerning the 'metal-ringed' Oystercatcher, I recorded last Sunday (27th December), at Sandy Bay in Larne.  My sighting has been accepted and they will forward the ringing details next week.  All I know at present, is that it was ringed in 2014.  It is very hard to get close enough to these birds to read 'metal-rings', so it was a good result in the end.

I obtained the first two letters through the telescope, but was unable to catch these letters on photos.  I did manage to obtain the numerals 84092 via two photos, but was a bit dubious about the first number.  Although to me it looked like an 8, it could perhaps be a 3.  After sending copies of the photos to fellow 'Ring Watchers' Graham Prole and Adam McClure, both reckoned the first number was an 8 and that I should report it to the BTO.  Success!! 

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I am still waiting on the ringing details for several gulls.  It is probably due to the Christmas Holidays, as to the reason I'm still waiting.  Hopefully, these will to start to filter through during the coming week.  I will post these, when I get them.

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