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.