Our Lesser black-backed gulls move southwards

Unfortunately we do not have picture of JA6V but JA5V was ringed next to it.

Yesterday (24th of September) Paul Veron reports that one of our Lesser black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) pullus was seen in Guernsey. This is our first reading for a gull in the Channel Islands and very nice that is was a LBBG pullus where the colony of birth is known. The colony where it was ringed is a semi-urban colony at Ågotnes which is a large supply base for the oil industry in the North Sea. The person responsible for the security kindly gave us access to the whole base and on 12th of July the urban ringing team in Bergen (Christian Pedersen, Vegard Finset Fjeldheim and Arild Breistøl) with help of Bent Fjeldheim from Hallingdal ringing group (blog is in Norwegian) entered the area. We ringed 18 Lesser Black-backed (one of these with metal ring only) and 34 Herring Gull pullus this day. As the other colonies we visited this summer the production of Lesser black-backed was not to good, but the Herring gull production was what we think is a normal level. Since this was our first visit to the colony we do not know the production numbers exactly so the production estimates are uncertain. We also have another reading of a LBBG from this colony but this one have so far only moved to the city center park in Bergen.

JJ1V was ringed in the semi-urban colony at Ågotnes 12th of July and seen for the first time in the city center of Bergen 5th of September. The 20th of September it was still present.

Since the Ågotnes colony is close to Bergen and reading with telescope don't seem to affect to birds much we visited the colony four times after ringing. Of the 17 LBBG pullus we ringed with colour rings 11 individuals (64 percent) has survived to fledging which is quite good. The observation in Guernsey was another confirmation of that the few LBBG pullus that fledged actually have survived.

Readings of Lesser black-backed gull pullus ringed in the colony at Ågotnes. JA6V has been seen 1309 kilometres south west in Guernsey and JJ1V in the city centre of Bergen.

A later post will summarise the colony at Fedje island which is a natural mixed colony of Herrings and LBBGs.

Some news and our first Gray Heron ringed

It's been a while since our last blog post, but our ringing activities are still continuing with the same strength. One of our target species this summer has been the Lesser Black-backed gull (Larus fuscus). The reason for this is mainly because of all observations outside Norway of the few LBBGs (9 adults and 13 1Y) we ringed last year. This year the numbers are much higher and so far we have ringed 79 fully grown LBBGs. The majority have been ringed in the Bergen city center, but we have also widen the horizon and ringed many breeding birds in the non-urban nesting colonies on the islands west of Bergen. In the colonies we visited the breeding success was low but we still managed to ring 59 nestlings in four different colonies. These days are exiting times, we get reports from Texel in The Netherland, France and Spain from birders who have spotted our birds.We are really looking forward to the autumn and winter months for more reports.

At the moment we try to ring as may first-year LBBGs as possible when they come to the parks to feed bread to fatten up for they journey south. The majority are quite easy to catch and we have reached 22 first-years as writing. Today we concluded that we had done a good job when almost every first-year LBBG we could find had a nice black ring around their legs. We therefore got time to ring some other species. One of the species we ringed was a first-year Gray Heron (Ardea cinerea) which was a new species for us. The story behind this bird was that it was found by the road in an island outside Bergen unable to fly and weak probably because of food shortage. It was transport to the friendly vets at Dyreklinikken Vest in Bergen who examined it and and feed it with cod. After a day and a night with care we could release it by a little lake in a park where we often see Gray Herons hunt for sticklebacks. We equipped it with a plastic ring and released it. In less then 20 minutes after release we could see it hunt for food and hopefully it will become strong enough to survive the winter.

The heron ringed with JE01 started to hunt for food shortly after release.

Large beautiful wings

Later we also ringed two first-year and one adult Coot (Fulica atra). The Coot have become a breeding  bird around Bergen in the last 20 years. This makes it extra interesting to ring this years production and the adults.

Latest activities and a Mew Gull that surprise us

There have been some time since our last post on this blog. The reason is not that we have stopped ringing gulls, rather the opposite the effort have been increased. In the one and a half month since the last post we have been focusing on ringing the Lesser Black-backed Gulls (Larus fuscus) breeding on the roofs in the city center of Bergen. At time of writing we have ringed 9 adults in urban Bergen and read seven of the nine adults ringed in 2011. The return rate are very impressive which inspire us to ring more. In addition to the urban ringing we started to do catching in a mixed colony of Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) and Lesser Black-backed Gulls in an industrial area 17 kilometers west of Bergen. So far this have resulted in 21 Herring Gulls and 5 LBGs. We have also had three very interesting readings of LBG's in this colony. One was ringed in Pitsea, England by Paul Roper's group, the second was ringed in Faro, Portugal after it was rehabilitated by the RIAS group. The third was a gull ringed as a chick 280 kilometers to the south outside Lista southwest in Norway. This bird had only been seen earlier in Algeria! We will write more about the work in this colony later.

Lesser Black-backed Gull F016 have returned to the breeding colony thanks to the RIAS rehabilitation centre in Faro, Portugal.

Today the the first 1Y Mew Gull (Larus canus) ringed in 2011 was read at River Severn, Gloucester, England. The special about this bird is that it was one of the easiest we ever have caught. We we gave out bread on a warm day in end of July 2011 this bird was almost running between our feet. We picked it easily up and put on a ring even though we expected close to zero probability that this bird would give a reading. The bird was very small and had a head and bill measurement of only 82 mm and body mass of 285 gram. When we released it it came right back to us begging for more bread. It remained in Bergen for about a week and continued to show the same unafraid behavior. This is the second of our first winter Mew Gulls to be read in Gloucester area the other is summarized here. Thanks to John Sanders for finding and reporting the this bird!

Mew Gull J9R6 was begging for more bread minutes after ringing and we are very pleased that it survived and hopefully will come back to breed on a roof in Bergen city center.

Welcome back...

21st of March the first Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) was back in the urban nesting colony at University of Bergen campus. Even if this individual isn't ringed, we believe this is one of the roof nesters because it rested most of the time close to one of last years nesting sites, it took bread and have remained at the site for two days now.

However, this is not the first LBBG in Bergen this year. The first was seen by Alf Tore Mjøs as early as 3rd of March when it rested briefly in the city centre lake. This is the earliest record ever in Hordaland county. The next individual showed up one week later (11th of March). Also this one just for a quick stop. At 21st of March the first two-digit numbers of LBBG seen here in Bergen was reported in the bird report system (Artsobservasjoner). The same day four was also observed in the city centre lake.

Now we are waiting for the first ringed LBBG to show up...

Ringing Mew Gulls pays off

During the autumn one of our goals was ringing at least hundred first winter Mew Gulls (Larus canus). We achieved this and managed to put plastic rings on 173 first winter individuals. The first reading came in Stavanger 150 kilometers south. During autumn and winter six of our birds was seen there. Of these six three have remained in Stavanger and wintered there.

The first international reading came from The Netherlands. In mid November one of our birds was observed in Groningen (read more here). Less than a week after the second was observed further south in The Netherlands in Overijssel. In January we had one in Denmark, but we could not understand why we didn't get any readings from England. Was it the mild winter that made the gulls stay on grassland and fields and therefore make them difficult to read? However, today (20th of March) we got a double reading from River Severn at Newnham near Gloucester thanks to John Sanders. One was ringed here in Bergen 26th of September and never seen here after. The other one was ringed in 16th of August and observed until 4th of September.

This map summarizes reading of the first-winter Mew Gulls ringed in Bergen during autumn 2011:

All readings of first-winter Mew Gulls ringed in Bergen during autumn 2011 (blue). The bold line from Bergen to Stavanger represent 6 individuals. The red line is reading of a breeding adult ringed in a colony north of Bergen.

J4K3 is one of the birds seen in England. Here pictured in the city centre lake in Bergen 4th of September.

In addition we have an observation of one of the breeding Mew Gulls in England. This individual is one of the first records that documents that breeding Mew Gulls in Hordaland county winter in England. This bird was ringed close to a breeding colony north of Bergen in Knarvik. The bird was seen in Rutland Water west for Leicester by Steve Lister the 28th of February 2012.

J7R3 pictured at the breeding site at Knarvik 22nd of July 2011.

Thanks to the gull readers: Alf Tore Mjøs, Henk van Huffelen, Frank Majoor, Flemming Fragtrup, John Sander and Steve Lister.

Ringing pintails and waiting for the Herring Gulls

After returning from Morocco in mid February the number ringed gulls is dangerously close to zero. The reason for this is partly the mild weather and a Peregrine sitting on the city hall building close to the city centre lake making the gulls nervous. The Peregrine usually hunts for pigeons, but when it hunts all the birds including the gulls fly in panic. We have only seen it taking a Mew Gull once and that was close to the place where the gulls spend the night during autumn.

In addition most Herring Gulls seem to have left Bergen. The max count of Herring Gulls in Bergen city in February was only between ten and twenty. We speculate that the reason for this movement is the Norwegian spring-spawning herring (Clupea harengus) which spawns in February-March outside the coast of Møre 200 kilometres north of Bergen. Sightings of the gulls ringed this autumn supports this. Three of these gulls have been seen in the Møre area between 13th of February to 23rd of February. These numbers are not enough to say something exactly but it's interesting. This map summarise the movement of the Herring gulls in January and February.

Movement of Herring Gulls ringed in Bergen (including one ringed some kilometres north west of Bergen in January) during the autumn (n=102). In addition to the sightings shown one was also seen in The Netherlands. All sightings are in January and February 2012.

ID	Last seen in Bergen	Date of recovery, site
JN632	07.01.12	17.02.12, Sandhavn, Møre
JN646	04.01.12	23.02.12, Måløy
JN673	07.01.12	13.02.12, Sandhavn, Møre
JN701	27.01.12	20.02.12, Milde, Bergen
JN635	06.11.11	14.02.12, Karmøy
JN672	17.12.11	04.01.12, Kristiansand
JN627	01.11.11	25.12.11-12.01.2012, Noord-Holland, NL

When the Herring Gulls have left the city centre lake the Mew Gulls has taken over. In mid February over 600 individuals was counted here.

The last month our activity has manly been reading rings and ringing some ducks like these Pintails and a couple of Wigeons (Anas penelope). Only 15 Northern Pintails (Anas acuta ) have ever been ringed in Norway. It will be interesting to see if one of them can produce a recovery. There is only one recovery of a Norwegian ringed Pintail. This was also ringed in Bergen during winter and shot in Scotland three years later.

Adult male ringed 19th of February 2012

First winter female ringed 8th of March 2012

The first winter female ringed 8th of March 2012.

Adult male ringed 19th of February 2012.

Moroccan dream...

Urban ringing in Bergen are at the time of writing at a gull expedition to Morocco. We have used the first two days reading gulls in Anza, Agadir and got around 50 different readings. This morning our dream comes true when JC5K ringed by us in Bergen 11th of September was eating fish waste in Anza. Our mission in Anza was complete and we headed southwards to Sidi Ifni. This small town between Tan-Tan and Agadir does not have a fish factory but still around 1500 Lesser blacked-backed gulls was seen. One of the birds was ringed by Alf Tore Mjøs i Stavanger. We have many other Lesser Black-backed readings and will send you information as soon as we get home to Norway!

JC5K in Anza, Agadir