Third 2024 Visit to Rathlin Island...

Rathlin Island - Tuesday 11th June 2024

Today saw me undertaking my third visit to Rathlin Island to read colour-rings on the Common Gulls.  I began my colour-ringing project back in 2017, with the aim of seeing how many chicks survive until adulthood to integrate into the overall breeding population of around 100 pairs.

I had hoped to visit the island last week, but I had no car as it needed new front brake pads and my mechanic was overloaded with work ahead, leaving me with a long wait.  Arriving on the island today, there was a very strong westerly-north-westerly wind blowing onto the west side of the island.  Luckily for me, the Common Gull colonies that I visited, were down on the rocks on the east side of the island, which afforded calmer conditions.

Scoping the gulls from the hillside, I was still catching a fair breeze, though down on the rocks, it was actually so calm that a slight heat haze was visible.  Due to this, zooming into colour-rings to take photos of the codes was very awkward and many rings-codes just could not be read for certain.

Today, I focused on the Arkill Bay and Doon Bay colonies, and one thing that struck me about both sites, was that many of the nesting gulls have simply vanished with notably reduced numbers.  There were small chicks dotted around the sites, though it will be at least two weeks before they are large enough for colour-rings to be fitted on their legs.  After today's visit, I'm fearing that this might well turn out to be another poor breeding season.

Just five of eleven colour-rings recorded today were legible.  Three of these were birds that would be immature and therefore likely to be prospecting nest sites for next year -  2CFA  (PDF),  2CFK  (PDF) and  2CFL  (PDF).  The remaining two gulls are breeding for the first time -  2BTL  (PDF) and  2BXJ  (PDF).

Common Gull  -   2CFK   -  Doon Bay, Rathlin Island, Co. Antrim  (11 Jun 2024)

Before leaving home, I made a last minute decision to take some rings with me just in case.  Although no Common Gull chicks were ringed, I did ring four Great Black-backed Gull chicks, two at Arkill Bay and the other two at Doon Point.  It was good to get these out of the way, as during future visits I can focus solely on the Common Gulls.  At Doon Bay, a Lesser Black-backed Gull appears to be sitting on a nest.  On Rathlin, the Lesser Black-backed's tend to nest in the main colonies, and I'm now hoping to ring chicks at Doon Bay at some point over the next few weeks.

Several pairs of Oystercatchers were alarm calling, but their chicks are normally very difficult to pin down.

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