Monday 11 March 2013

Perfect seaduck conditions and German Common Gull details

Firstly, I had some quick news back about the red darvic ringed Common Gull on Llanddulas beach on Saturday evening. The 'ACTH' Common Gull was ringed as a chick on a roof top colony at Kiel, Schlezwig-Holstein, Germany on June 26th, 2012. The Llanddulas sighting was the first sighting of this bird since then.
The ringers report that more and more of their 'German' Common Gulls and Mediterranean Gulls seem to be making a westerly movement towards the United Kingdom over the past few years -  a shift in trends.
I have had a few Norwegian ringed birds in the flock over the past few years, but this is my first from Germany. The large flock of several thousand Common Gulls at Llanddulas that also contains a few Mediterranean Gulls offer a good chance of reading rings at the moment, especially as they come in to roost a couple of hours before dusk.
Here are some pictures of the bird at Llanddulas on Saturday bearing it's red ring, a pictures of the Kiel rooftop where the bird was ringed, the journey the bird made and where it will probably return to over the summer, the bird as a chick and Matthias Haupt, the ringer doing a spot of Common Gull ringing on the rooftop.






Perfect conditions for seaduck watching today with the north easterly winds blowing the seaduck closer to shore. The great light and clear air meant that searching through the 20,000+ Common Scoter was easier than usual. All birds flew west to east past Station Road, which gave some shelter from the strong winds. Three drake Surf Scoters were easy to pick out while 25+ Velvet Scoters were my highest count of the year here. Three Scaup and a drake Long tailed Duck were also amongst the black mass offshore.

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