Unlucky Dutch...

Antrim Marina - Monday 3rd October 2022

My 10th weekly visit to Antrim Marina, saw another poor showing by the Black-headed Gulls.  With over a 120 birds being present last Monday, overall numbers present at any one time today never exceeded the 60 mark.  It was a dull, cloudy day with a slight breeze and occasional spits of rain at first, but by 12:30 the rain came on pretty heavily.

On my arrival, about 50 Black-headed's were present, and numbers went up and down like a yoyo.  The colour-ring of -  2CSR , was the first to be read at 09:05, with -  2FDK , being the 11th ring read at 09:38.  After this time, there were large gaps in ring sightings, with the 19th and final ring of -  2AAA , being read at 12:03.  I'm always glad to record -  2AAA , as it was the first gull to be ringed belonging to Adam McClure's former Northern Ireland Study.  At 9 years, 10 months and 21 days since being ringed, I'm hoping -  2AAA  will surpass the 10 year mark.

When I arrived, I was on the lookout for 35 colour-rings which have been recorded so far this autumn/winter, which includes one bird that was caught and ringed last month.  I had 16 absentees altogether today, which is quite a high number, and no new returnees were recorded.

All in all, this visit was very slow and boring.  Conversations with a couple of Antrim folk, saw them telling me of high numbers of gulls in some of the towns housing estates.  This is no good to me, as I cannot go round peoples houses looking for ringed birds.

Colour Ringed Black-headed Gulls Recorded at Antrim Marina on Monday 3rd October 2022

2CSR	2FHX	2FFA	2FHV	2FHP	2CSB	2FIF
2FFF	2AAB	2FIA	2FDK	2CTC	2FFX	2FIK
2ABL	2AAK	2CJT	2ABN	2AAA

Colour Ringed Black-headed Gulls Recorded at Antrim Marina This Autumn/Winter but Absent Today

2AAN	2ABA	2ABS	2ACV	2BRA	2CSA	2CSK	2CSL
2CSX	2FFC	2FFP	2FHA	2FHC	2FHJ	2FIH	2FIJ

Other Birds at Antrim Marina

There were no Mute Swans present when I arrived today, but the usual four cygnets arrived without their parents at 10:55.  They quickly came to hand for a feed of bread, and at 12:10, their parents arrived.

Mallard numbers remained fairly static with around 50 on my arrival, with possibly the same number present when I departed just after 12:30.

The only Common Gull seen during my visit, arrived at 09:33 and was still present when I departed.  Really surprised by the lack of visiting birds at this stage of the autumn season, and still no sign of the metal-rung Scottish bird.  No sign of the resident Herring Gull, but the one that appeared at 11:09, is likely to be the same bird that appeared here last Monday.

A single Hooded Crow and just four Jackdaws were recorded, and a small flock of Long-tailed Tits fed amongst the branches of the Crack Willow tree for a short period. 

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From Steven Fyffe and Suzanne Belshaw

On the 29th September 2022, I received an email from Steven Fyffe, which contained several photos of a colour-ringed Black-headed Gull, spotted at Lady Bay, on Lough Neagh, Co. Antrim.  Steven thought the Orange ring might have read - 1215 or possibly 1715.  Looking through the series of photos, I was sure that the colour-ring was Red, but I could not make out the code.  If it was a British-rung bird, the code would begin with the number 2, which is the case for all colour-ringed British-rung Black-headed Gulls and Common Gulls - this I explained to Steven in my reply.  I suggested that the bird could be Scottish, as the Borders Ringing Group, use Red Darvics at their Elvanfoot site in South Lanarkshire.

I also copied Suzanne Belshaw into my reply, with the hope that she would visit the site if she had time, and could perhaps 'nail' this one.  Suzanne has a Nikon P900 camera, which like my Nikon P1000, can zoom out over long distances.  Suzanne duly obliged, and on the following day found the gull at Lady Bay, and captured the code -  22L5 .  Having sent an email to the project involved and with no reply being received, I submitted the bird to the BTO by its colour-marks only.

At the same time, I submitted another couple of ring sightings, and I have already received recoveries for those birds, but nothing for -  22L5 .  With it now being Friday 7th October, there is still no word of a recovery for this bird, which makes me think, that the original ringing details have not as yet, been submitted to the BTO and therefore a recovery cannot be generated.  In these circumstances, the BTO will contact the ringer or ringing group, to request the details.

Black-headed Gull  -   22L5   -  Lady Bay, Lough Neagh, Co. Antrim  (30 Sep 2022)

(Waiting for the Ringing Details)

(Photo by Suzanne Belshaw)

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From Cameron Moore

Cameron Moore has been in touch regarding a juvenile Herring Gull that he spotted on the Whitehead seafront in County Antrim.  Later, after the photo arrived, I emailed Graham Prole who is the ringing coordinator for the Irish Midlands Ringing Group.

 K09:D , was ringed as a chick, on the 18th June 2022, on Ireland's Eye Island in County Dublin, Republic of Ireland.  21 days later, the gull was still on the island when spotted on the 9th July.  Cameron's sighting on the 1st October 2022, comes 3 months and 13 days since being ringed.  The distance from Ireland's Eye to Whitehead, is 151 kms / 94 miles (N).

My thanks to Graham for supplying the details, and to Cameron for his sighting report and photo.  A couple of weeks ago, Cameron was on the phone to me, to state that things have been very quiet at Whitehead as regards to ring sightings, especially those of Sandwich Terns.  I have read reports that some Sandwich Tern colonies were severely affected by outbreaks of 'Bird Flu', which may have had led to the lack of birds spotted on passage this autumn.

Juvenile Herring Gull  -   K09:D   -  Whitehead, Belfast Lough, Co. Antrim  (01 Oct 2022)

(Ringed as a Chick, on the 18th June 2022, on Ireland's Eye Island, Co. Dublin, Republic of Ireland)

(Photo Courtesy of Cameron Moore)

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Death of -  T61:D

Whilst browsing through the European colour-ring Birding (cr-birding) Facebook account, I came across a photo showing the remains of a Juvenile Great Black-backed Gull -  T61:D .  The entry date was given as the 22nd September 2022, but the photographer Hilary Thompson gave no details as to where the bird was found.  In the comments, I asked for the location of the find, but have not found any reply.

The gull was ringed as a chick, on the 18th June 2022, on Ireland's Eye Island in County Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland.  It's was first re-sighted by James Young, on the 12th September 2022, when the young gull landed on his fishing boat, just off the coast from Portavogie in County Down.  The duration at the time, was 2 months and 25 days since being ringed, and the distance from Ireland's Eye, was 124 kms / 77 miles (NNE).  

I will not add Hilary's photo, as I have not received permission to add it to this post.  Looking at the photo of -  T61:D  taken by James Young, the bird looks to be perfectly healthy, but at the latest, 10 days had passed when the gull was found dead.

Juvenile Great Black-backed Gull  -   T61:D   -  At Sea, Portavogie, Co. Down  (12 Sep 20220

(Ringed as a Chick, on the 18th June 2022, on Ireland's Eye Island, Co. Dublin, Republic of Ireland)

(Photo Courtesy of James Young)

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Ballykelly and Myroe Levels

On Saturday 1st October, and again on Sunday 2nd October, I visited Ballykelly and the nearby Myroe Levels situated on the shores of Lough Foyle in County Londonderry.  Saturday saw strong winds with occasional heavy showers of rain, whilst Sunday was fairly calm.  Two weeks ago, I recorded 10 colour-ringed gulls at these same sites over two days, and having noted thousands of gulls, this spurred me on to have another go looking for rings this weekend.

It became a frustrating two days, as having scoped many hundreds of legs, I only found one colour-ringed bird on each day.  On Saturday, I found a colour-ringed Oystercatcher on the Myroe Levels, and on Sunday, re-sighted a Black-headed Gull which I recorded at Ballykelly a fortnight ago.

I took a very long distance photograph of the Oystercatcher on the Myroe Levels, which had it's metal ring placed on the right tibia, with one yellow ring on each tarsus.  I made a search on the International Wader Study Group Database, in order to find out where this bird had come from.  The only match that I could find, was that of a Spanish project, where the yellow ring on the right tarsus should have numerals inscribed onto it.

A Spanish Oystercatcher in Northern Ireland did not seem right to me, so I emailed Wader expert Richard de Fue, for his opinion.  Richard replied to say that this bird was likely to be from the Waddensea area in the Netherlands, and both rings should have letters.  Looking at these rings, it would appear that the lettering has worn away.  Even at that, if the letters were still present, I doubt if I could have captured them from the distance between the bird and myself.  Pity about this one, as it would have been my first Dutch Oystercatcher.

Colour-Ringed Oystercatcher  -  Myroe Levels, Lough Foyle, Co. Londonderry  (01 Oct 2022)

The Black-headed Gull that I re-sighted at Ballykelly was that of -  2JH7 .  Two weeks ago, I first came across this bird on the shore at Ballykelly, and today it was feeding in a field just inland from the same shore.  I managed to capture the code, despite this being one of the longest distance photos that I have ever taken, successfully capturing the code.

 2JH7 , was ringed as an adult male, on the 28th February 2021, at Blackness Castle in Falkirk, Scotland.  My two sightings are the only ones for this bird, with the duration since being ringed now being 1 year, 7 months and 4 days.  The distance to Ballykelly, is 246 kms / 152 miles (WSW).

Black-headed Gull  -   2JH7   -  Ballykelly, Lough Foyle, Co. Londonderry  (02 Oct 2022)

(Ringed as an Adult Male, on the 28th February 2021, at Blackness Castle, Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland)

Two weeks ago here at Ballykelly, I spotted a Black-headed Gull colour-ringed -  2Y37 .  I submitted this bird by its colour-marks, but have yet to receive a recovery.  However, while on my BTO DemOn account, I noticed that a metal number had been added to my sighting, which meant the BTO has the ringing details, though a recovery has yet to be sent.  I used the metal number as if entering a new sighting and found a ringing date - 12th June 2021, with the bird having been ringed as a chick.

This ties in with two other Black-headed Gulls on my Ring Reading Spreadsheet -  2Y57  &  2Y52 , both having been recorded in Northern Ireland.  All three of these gulls were ringed as chicks, on the 12th June 2021, at the Wildfowl & Wetland Trust Nature Reserve at Martin Mere, in Lancashire, England.

Despite not having a recovery, I was able to add the duration and distance for -  2Y37 .  Spotted on the 17th September 2022, the duration is now 1 year, 3 months and 5 days since being ringed, and the distance to Ballykelly, is roughly 314 kms / 195 miles (NW).

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