Ringing Details...

Ringing Details Received

Great Black-backed Gull  -     T7VZ  

This bird was my first ever sighting of a 'Darvic-ringed' gull of this species.  First sighted on the 13th February 2016 at Portavogie Harbour in County Down, I recorded it again at the same site two weeks later on the 27th February.

  T7VZ  was ringed as a chick on the 17th July 2013 at the Point of Ayre Gravel Pits on the Isle of Man by members of the Manx Ringing Group.  My second sighting came 2 years, 7 months and 10 days, since this gull was ringed.  Portavogie Harbour is only 69km / 42 miles west of the ringing site.  The Isle of Man is situated in the Irish sea, midway between Northern Ireland and England.

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Black-headed Gull  -    2BAL 

I spotted this gull on the 3rd March 2016 on the seafront at Donaghadee Harbour.  Another one from Adam McClure's Northern Ireland Black-headed Gull Study, it was ringed as a chick on the nearby Copeland Islands on the 22nd June 2014, just 3km / 2 miles to the north.

Since being ringed, the only previous sighting of   2BAL , was on the 31st August 2015, also at Donaghadee.  My sighting of this gull came 1 year, 8 months and 12 days, since being ringed.

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Black-headed Gull  -    2ASF  

I spotted this BHG just recently (13th March), at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Belfast Harbour Reserve.  Having taken a few photos through the perspex window of a hide overlooking a nesting platform on the Lagoon, the ring number was not a 100% clear, but looked like   2ASF .

This would be another of Adam's Study birds and I emailed photos to see if the sighting could be verified.  Adam agreed, that this was indeed   2ASF .  My sighting comes, 2 years, 8 months and 24 days, since this gull was ringed as a chick on Blue Circle Island, Larne Lough, which lies 22 km / 14 miles to the NNE.

The latest sighting, is the 3rd for this BHG, having first being sighted on the 4th August 2015 and then on the 19th October, both times at the nearby Whitehouse Lagoon.    2ASF  was in full courtship display when I observed it and may well nest on the platform.

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Herring Gull  -    1E:W  

On Saturday, 12th March 2016, I spotted this gull in Millisle in County Down and this is my fifth Herring Gull from the new colour-ringing project which began on the nearby Copeland Islands in 2014.  It was ringed as an un-sexed adult on the 6th May 2015.  Adam McClure is the ringing co-ordinator for the Copelands and my sighting is the first for this gull.

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