The Common Gulls at the local park have been back for a few weeks, slowly building up in numbers to about a hundred today. I searched for ringed ones and found JV47, which I first saw on its first winter in January 2015. It is a fully adult gull now and trusting enough to allow me to take a close up.
Another shot from today.
JV47 as a 1st winter immature in typical chick 'hunchback' posture (23/1/2015). He was ringed the previous October at Bergen, Norway.
Click
here to find out about other ringed common gulls at Pearson Park. If you find a ringed gull and you can read the ring, you can report it to
Euring, the European Ringing scheme.
Beautiful individual! It is amazing to see that it was ringed in Norway, I would travel all over the world if I had wings too.
ReplyDeleteSometimes Gulls can be very difficult to ID, there are many birders here in Spain who dedicate all their birding time to travel to dumping sites, where they spend ages looking at all the Gulls which visit them. Sometimes they hit the jackpot and find some really rare species, it is surprising when American gulls are spotted here. There is a blog about it: http://madrid-gull-team.blogspot.com.es/
Take care.
Lol, yes I'm not sure that branch of birding has a name 'gullology'? Gulls are really hard with the different subspecific variation and age moulting patterns. I love Common Gull faces, they have a very rounded head and the eyes are amazing!
DeleteLarophile is a term. I like this blog, it has lots of resources: https://gullstothehorizon.wordpress.com/
DeleteA lovely close-up picture. Common Gulls' dark eyes make them look gentle, which they are not.
ReplyDeleteI agree Ralph. Every year I take so many photos of them, they are quite feisty though!
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