Black-headed Gull - Black P309

Back in December I recorded a colour-ringed Black-headed Gull in the car park at Castlewellan Forest Park which, I knew from my sighting of P736 last winter (see here), was a Lithuanian ringed bird.

I reported it to the Lithuanian Bird Ringing Centre and earlier this month I heard back that the bird was ringed on 29 March 2010 by Vytautas Pareigis and Frank Majoor at Dumpių sąvartynas in western Lithuania.

This was the first sighting of the bird since ringing.

Many thanks to Lithuanian Bird Ringing Centre for providing the information.

Another couple of firsts.....

Hot on the heels of the first records of 2AVX and 2J03 at the end of last month, at the start of this month I got word of two more "firsts".

The first-first was received on 4th May when Kev Kirkham-Brown got in touch to say he had photographed a colour-ringed Black-headed Gull from the hide at WWT Castle Espie.

It was hard to make out, but I could just about see the inscription 2AFC. I checked the database and this bird was one of nine (eight adults and one first winter) we caught and ringed at Castle Espie at the end of March last year. This was the first re-sighting of 2AFC since it had been ringed, although I suspect it may be breeding at the site, so I'll have to head down for a quick scan of the colony for rings.

Photo by Kev Kirkham-Brown

The next day, the guys at the Northern Ireland Birdwatchers' Association (NIBA) passed on a photo that Stuarty McKee had taken at Whitehouse Lagoon, Belfast Lough. It was a first-winter bird which was ringed as 2AFF. 

Photo by Stuarty McKee

2AFF was one of the birds ringed on Mew Island during an evening trip last June by members of Copeland Bird Observatory and it had been ringed by John Stewart (see here). This too was a first re-sighting, meaning that 62 of the 151 birds ringed so far have been seen at least once since.

Many thanks to Kev and Stuarty for the sightings and photographs.