First Scottish record for NIBHG

We received an email at the weekend from Brian Henderson in Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway.

Brian had been scanning the gulls at Bishop Burn, Loch Ryan looking for colour-rings, when he noticed one of "our" birds. He managed to get a couple of digi-scoped birds which showed the code, 2AFB. 

Photos by Brian Henderson

He returned a couple of days later and was pleased the bird was still present and he managed to get several clearer shots of the bird to confirm his sighting.

Photos by Brian Henderson

This bird was ringed as an adult male at Carrickfergus, Belfast Lough on 30 December 2013. It was recorded at Carrick in January and February 2014, before turning up back at Carrick in October. The only other sighting was Cameron Moore's record at Ballycarry, Larne Lough in November.

Photo by Cameron Moore

Many thanks to Brian for getting in touch to report his sighting and passing on the photos. Surprisingly, this is our first record of one of our colour-ringed birds from Scotland - hopefully this is the first of many!

Colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls at Lurgan

Last winter, Stephen Hewitt recorded a Norweigan-ringed bird at Lurgan Park in County Armagh (see here). The bird had originally been ringed at Stranga as a pullus, before being controlled at Oslo in 2011 when the colour-ring was added.

Well, J4P4 has once again turned up at the same site. It was recorded again by Stephen in January and at the weekend, Kevin Kirkham-Brown took this photo.

Photo by Kevin Kirkham-Brown

As well as the Norwegian bird, Kevin also photographed one of our NI-ringed birds, 2BRD.

Photo by Kevn Kirkham-Brown

This bird was ringed at Antrim at the start of February and was recorded there a week later by Gareth. This is the first sighting since.

Many thanks to Kevin for getting in touch with his sightings and for the photos.