18 year old Herring Gull

This evenings quick visit to the park in the city centre of Bergen gave us the opportunity to put plastic ring on our oldest Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) this year. We first saw it standing a bit outside all the first and second year Herrings and got really interested when we saw it was ringed on right foot instead of the left. Alf Tore Mjøs who has done a lot of the ringing in Bergen in the end of the 1980's and 1990's always put the ring on left foot. In addition the ring look like it was quite old due to wear. After some time we got hold of it and and gave it a black plastic ring with JN707 inscription. We did all our measurements and took standard pictures of wing and head. The excitement was high when we opened the Ring Access program and punched in the number and the result said that it was ringed as a pullus in 1993 in Valderøy, Sunnmøre which is 240 kilometres north of Bergen. A bird ringed as a pullus makes it even more valuable.

The bird was ringed at Valderøy 22.06.1993 240 kilometres north of Bergen.

P10 and P9 are unmoulted and from last year. P8 (not showing on picture), P7, and P6 are growing. The first secondary have also been renewed. A moulting score of 60%.

Head of our 18 year old friend.

We also did a nice reading of a Herring gull ringed with white JA ring. Large gulls ringed with JA was the first color ringing project in Bergen. This JA39 was ringed as a 1Y in 18th of March 2004.