Showing posts with label great black-backed gull. Show all posts
Showing posts with label great black-backed gull. Show all posts

Oct 9, 2012

Two gulls from northwestern Norway


The 26th of September (This post is published after some delay) was spent on the western islands looking for eastern rarities. The first thing we did was feeding out a bag of bread and start to scan gull feet for color rings, once a gull addict always a gull addict. It did not take long before the first Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) with a black JN was spotted. It was ringed on the island of Fedje earlier this spring, so this one was quite ordinary. The next one was much better a fact we knew right away because it was a 1 cy Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) which we have ringed only a few of this year. We suspected that this was the ringing work of Ingar Støyle Bringsvor (blog is in Norwegian). When the number was typed into the database well at home our suspicion proved to be correct. The eastern rarities was absent but this gull made our day.

JP954 was ringed in a breeding colony at Sand in Møre og Romsdal concil 176 kilometres north of where it feed well on our bread.
Well back to the urban sites we used the leftover bread to see if any new gulls had arrived. The first one to show up behaving very aggressively towards the other was a Herring Gull with a black unkown ring to us. The database was quickly accessed through the phone and indeed this was also ringed by Ingar Støyle Bringsvor!

J4743 was ringed at the island Runde which is one of Norways most famous seabird colonies. 


Wing and tail pattern for J4743

The Great Black-backed Gull is the first we have from this region but the Herring Gull is our second. Our first was the 18 year old, who this spring turned 19, and returned to Bergen 15th of July. We end this post with a picture of the 19 year old Herring Gull born in the same area as the 2012 model.

JN707 showed up in the park 15th of July and have since been seen at a regular basis.



Oct 5, 2011

Ringing summary for September 2011

In September we ringed a total of 104 gulls. Most of them 1Y Mew Gulls which was really easy to catch on rainy days. 11 1Y Lesser Blacked-backed Gulls was also ringed before they migrated southwards. The number of Black-headed Gull is still low in Bergen this autumn. Our max. count is only 12 which explains the low number of ringed of the species this month. An urban ringed Great Blacked-backed Gull was our first, even if it was a very small one. The numbers is summarized like this:

Species1YSub adultAdult
Mew Gull7703
Lesser Blacked-backed Gull1100
Great Blacked-backed Gull100
Herring gull721
Black-headed Gull101
SUM9725

JC3K hopefully in Spain or Morocco now

Sep 28, 2011

Great Black-backed Gull and lots of Mew Gulls

On the 22nd of September we caught our first 1Y Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) in the city centre of Bergen. We had seen this individual between the Herring gulls for about a week and it was on the top of our wanted list. Finally, on this Thursday it came too close when Christian was giving bread to the Herring Gulls and it was nicely hand cached. This actually makes it the first ever hand cached Great Black-backed Gull in Bergen. We have to admit that it was rather small (body mass: 1450 g and head+bill: 132,1 mm) and probably a female, but still the first!

Wing of Great Black-backed Gull JN600.Head of Great Black-backed Gull JN600.


The next day the total number of ringed 1Y Mew Gull reached one hundred. This fulfil one of our goals for the season and we immediately set another goal of two hundred 1Y Mew's. As writing we have already reached 120 much because we now are three active gull ringers in Bergen. Vegard Finset Fjeldheim has joined the team! One trained ringer more makes it possible to more quickly ring and measure the gulls when we have a window when they are catchable.

Our effort of catching 1Y Mew Gulls have also given us another reading. As our first reading (J6R1) this new was also seen by Alf Tore Mjøs. This time in Breiavatnet (a lake in the city centre of Stavanger) 49 days after ringing and 156 kilometres south.

J3R6 moving 156 kilometres from Bergen to Stavanger

J3R6 at Breiavatnet, Stavanger. Photo: Alf Tore Mjøs