Results from the Morocco expedition

After we came home from Morocco and got used to -10 degrees and snow, the long dark evenings was used to punch the gull readings in excel. This work was more extensive than expected, which of course is most joyful. The total number of readings was about 735 of 367 different individuals. The e-mails with observations are at the moment sent to the different project managers and we are really looking forward to get the life histories and ringing informations. When this information is received and we have done some computing we will give a summary of the results as a post on this blog! The summary for the different 'countries' are as follows:

Country	Observations	Number ind.
Norway	231	99
The Netherlands	150	79
England	80	38
Belgium	71	37
Denmark	54	28
Spain	28	28*
Guernsey	25	10
Scotland	19	8
France	17	6
Germany	14	6
Iceland	9	4
Portugal	4	1
Sweden	1	1**
Unknown	32	22

*27 Audouin's Gulls and one Black-headed Gull
**Reading of metall ring

The species was dominated by Lesser Black-backed gull (Larus fuscus) followed by Audouin's Gull (Larus audouinii)

Species	Observations	Number ind.
Lesser Black-backed gull	706	338
Audouin's Gull	27	27
Mediterranean Gull	1	1
Black-headed Gull	1	1

We will end this blog with a picture of the reading that in our opinion was the best for us. This male Lesser Black-backed Gull JA8K was ringed on top of the Science building at University of Bergen. He incubated on three eggs but we do unfortunately not know who his girlfriend is. If he stick to her one more year we hopefully get more information in 2013. This picture was taken on the last observation date in Bergen 20th of August 2012.

Mediterranean Gull in Bergen

A really rain full weekend here in Western Norway ended with the forth ever Mediterranean Gull (Larus melanocephalus) of the county. Earlier this Sunday we was out on the urban feeding places for gulls to catch first year Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls. It ended with one of each species and we were quite pleased with that when the the conditions were taken into account. After a late afternoon reading gulls in the different urban lakes a last visit was made to the city centre park. The first thing that got our attention was a Mew Gull (Larus canus) ringed with a white ring that we saw was not ours. A picture was taken and we saw that the ring had the number EZ95 and we know that this is probably a bird ringed by Frank Majoor in The Nederlands. We have earlier had four of his Mew Gulls in Bergen and it was really nice to get a new one.

After a gull with to much contrast between scapulars, upper wing coverts and greater coverts was spotted. A first-year Mediterranean Gull. YES! We had been waiting for this species to show up in the city centre park, and there it was. A few snapshots were taken before it took to the wings a flew across the lake heading south. This is only the fourth record in Hordaland county. So far in 2012 there have been around ten different individuals in Norway as a total, but many of these have not been considered by the local rarities committees so this number is not exact yet. In Hordaland these are the previous records, notice that the two first individuals was colour ringed.
  

•  22.07-06.10.1996, 1 3cy Bergen. Color-ringed (red  H135) in Szeged, Hungary. Was in 09.05.2004 seen in Nyski, Poland.

• 21.11.1997-23.03.1998, 1 1cy/2cy wintering in Bergen, This one also color-ringed (red  H775) in Szeged, Hungary. This bird was later seen in Suffolk Great Britain, Szege Hungary,  Antwerpen Belgium, Nyski Poland.
• 17.07-31.07 2012, 1 3cy in Norheimsund. 

Mediterranean Gull (Larus melanocephalus) in Bergen 30th of September.

Mew Gull EZ95 probably ringed by Frank Majoor in The Netherlands