Copeland gulls (and flowers!)

Last weekend, I made my first visit of 2013 to one of my favourite places in Ireland, Copeland Bird Observatory (CBO).

CBO is located on Old Lighthouse Island, part of the small archipelago which makes up the Copeland Islands, a few miles of the County Down coast, just south of the mouth of Belfast Lough.

Mew Island from Old Lighthouse Island

The Copelands are home to thousands of seabirds which come here to breed every spring, including a small colony of Black-headed Gulls. 

This year, for the first time, the species has bred on Old Lighthouse Island where we spent the weekend. As they are amongst the large colony of Arctic Terns, however, the decision was made not to attempt to ring any BHG as it would cause too much unnecessary disturbance to the terns.  Welfare of the birds is paramount and as disappointing as it was not to get a chance to ring the BHG, we did manage to fill our weekend with some other brilliant species, including a couple of bigger gulls.

We managed to catch and ring two Herring Gulls (one adult and one sub-adult), eight Lesser Black-backed Gulls (two adults and six chicks) and eleven Common Gull chicks. 

Photo by Shane Wolsey

Common Gull chick after being ringed

Anyone who has ever handled large gulls will appreciate the photo below of the female LBBG hanging off my wrist!  Never let your guard down with these big brutes, or else they'll grab onto the nearest body part!!

Photo by Julie Miller

Photo by Julie Miller

Photo by Julie Miller

As well as gulls, we also managed to catch a splattering of passerines, a Sparrowhawk and this brilliant looking female Water Rail.

Although we didn't get an opportunity to fit any colour-rings to BHGs, I thought I'd add a splash of colour to the blog by putting up some photos of the wonderful array of flowers which cover the island, including Sea Campion, Red Campian, Bluebells, Scarlet Pimpernel, Forget-me-not and buttercups.

Copeland is a magical place and if you've never visited, you should make an effort to get out to this seabird paradise.  It is one of the best places, if not the best, in Northern Ireland for getting fantastic views of Manx Shearwater, Stock Dove, Puffins, Black Guillemots, gulls and terns...to name a few!

To visit the CBO website, click here.

Quick update on a couple of BHG colonies

I've been keeping an eye on a number of coastal colonies of Black-headed Gull in Northern Ireland this spring, and as with everything else, they're all over the place!  Some birds have already hatched young, while others appear to still be at the early stages of incubation.

If you've never seen a Black-headed Gull colony in action, you're spoilt for choice in Northern Ireland. Three colonies which you could visit very easily (all in the same day if you wanted), are the Cockle Island Seabird Centre in Groomsport which as around 400 nesting pairs, the RSPB's Belfast Harbour Reserve where there are around 100 pairs nesting on the two tern islands in the lagoon, or WWT Castle Espie, where Kerry Mackie has told me there are currently around 370 pairs, although many still appear to be incubating.

If you choose to visit Belfast Harbour, amongst the Black-headed Gulls there is a slightly odd looking bird and this is actually a Black-headed Gull x Mediterranean Gull hybrid which is breeding with a regular Black-headed Gull.

Photo by Ronald Surgenor

Photo by Ronald Surgenor

Photo by Ronald Surgenor

Photo by Ronald Surgenor

Exciting news, well I think so at least(!), is that there are around 50 pairs nesting on Copeland Bird Observatory, the first time they've done so, although there have always been colonies on Mew Island and Big Copeland.  Shane Wolsey reported that the first chicks were just emerging last weekend, so hopefully, there will be plenty of young to ring when I visit the Observatory at the end of next week.

The other piece of big news is that I've also been granted permission by RSPB to ring pulli Black-headed Gulls on Blue Circle Island in Larne Lough.

Blue Circle is a man-made island which is home to a colony of around 2000 pairs of Black-headed Gull, so it's fantastic to get to include it in the study. As well as Black-heads, other species which nest on the island included Common Gull, Sandwich Tern, Common Tern, Red-breasted Merganser and Black Guillemots.  The site also supports a small colony of Mediterranean Gulls (6 pairs in 2012), and Northern Ireland's only breeding pair of Roseate Tern, although birds were also seen hanging around Mew Island and Cockle Island in Groomsport last year.

Here is a short video clip which I took during a visit to Blue Circle Island last June with Matthew Tickner, RSPB NI Reserves' Ecologist, when we visited to monitor the Common Tern nests:

RSPB NI have also supported the project by agreeing to purchase a batch of rings, which is very much appreciated and gratefully received!

Swedish bird in Belfast!

Declan Clarke, a ringer from County Down, got in touch to let me know about a ringed Black-headed Gull which was found dead on Duncrue Street in the harbour area of Belfast on 18 January this year.

The ring was inscribed with the number, 6426829, and the address read Rikmuseum Stockholm, which indicated that this bird had been ringed in Sweden.

Declan reported the find through the BTO and got word back last week.

Sure enough, this bird was originally ringed as a chick on 31 May 2011 at Sunnana, Mellerud in Sweden.  The distance between ringing location to where it was recovered is 1214 km and time between ringing and recovery was 598 days.

Blue - Sunnana, Mellerud, Sweden
Red - Belfast, Northern Ireland

This also means that this is yet another country to add to the list of where wintering Black-headed Gulls during winter 2012-13 originated, as confirmed through rings/colour-rings being read, taking the total to nine (Lithuania, Poland, Norway, Iceland, England, Scotland, Ireland, Belarus and Sweden). 

Many thanks to Declan for passing on the information.

Black-headed Gull - 2AAR (an update)

I have received another email from the Polish Bird Ringing Centre in Gdańsk with a second (or should that be first?!) sighting of 2AAR.

The original email which I received about this bird reported that it had been seen at Hryniewicze on 11th April, but it turns out that this was actually the second sighting of the bird in Poland.  Artur Blad had seen 2AAR at Kowale in Gdansk 6 days before, on 5th April.

Red - Antrim, NI (ringed here 21.12.12, last recorded here 12.03.13)
Yellow - Gdansk, Poland (seen here 05.04.13)
Blue - Hryniewicze, Poland (seen here 11.04.13)

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION

Photo by Artur Blad

Photo by Artur Blad

This is fantastic news and I'm delighted to receive both reports.  Many thanks to Artur and Michal for reporting their sightings and to the Polish Bird Ringing Centre for passing on the information.