Black-headed Gull - White J4P4

Stephen Hewitt got in touch last week to say that he had seen a colour-ringed black-headed gull while he was carrying out his monthly WeBS count at Lurgan Park, Co. Armagh.

The bird, which was J4P4, had been originally ringed as a pullus at Stranga, Norway in June 2006. It was recaptured in April 2011 at Oslo, when it was fitted with the colour-ring.

It has subsequently been re-sighted at Oslo in March 2012 and close to the colony where it was originally ringed in July this year.

A couple of weeks ago I had been speaking to Raymond Duncan from Grampian Ringing Group and he had told me they had experienced an influx of Norwegian gulls into NE Scotland, and to keep an eye out here...perhaps I should've asked him for the lottery numbers instead! 

Blue - Ringed as pullus, June 2006
Yellow - Cr-ring added, April 2011; re-sighted, March 2012
Green - Re-sighted, July 2013
Red - Re-sighted, Nov 2013

Stephen's sighting is the first of this bird away from Norway and is a distance of 1172 km.