Unfortunately we're not making much progress with the seabird monitoring given the incredible run of windy weather and rough seas, preventing us from landing on most of the colonies. Time is beginning to beat us now...and more and more birds are fledging unringed! At least we managed a gull catch in the garden over the weekend. After several hours with no luck we thought we would draw a complete blank...but in a manic two minute spell we took a large catch and ringed c 65 gulls including 11 Lesser Black-backed Gulls! Amongst them was a metal-ringed bird E4637, which I had ringed as a chick in one of the Sark colonies in July 1990 - making this gull almost 22 years old! In the same catch was a Herring Gull (Yellow 4B8) colour ringed by the late Bob Burrow in June 1999 in Jersey. Amazingly this bird had not been recorded at all in the intervening 13 years...how can that be?!
LBBG Black 8AN3 (Jersey E4637) a 22 year old bird!
P.S. Non gull footnote! - Two Kestrel chicks have just fledged from the "owl" box in the background of the photo!
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