Black-headed Gull - Yellow 250B

On Monday morning, on the way to work I called in at Sprucefield Shopping Centre for a couple of minutes to check the Black-headed Gull flock which hangs around the Micky D's for colour-rings.

I wasn't disappointed when I noticed a bird with a yellow ring, with the code 250B. I knew from a sighting I had of one of their birds last winter (see here), that this was a bird from a project in Mayo, run by Eoin McGreal and Chris Benson.

 

 

I sent an email off to Eoin and heard back that this bird had been ringed at Lough Mask on 6 June 2008 and was subsequently seen back at the breeding colony as a 1st year bird (2 June 2009) and an adult (29 June 2010). 

My sighting is the first in 3 years, and the fact I recorded the bird so soon after the breeding season, would suggest that it either failed to breed at Lough Mask this year and has returned to the wintering grounds already, or that it is breeding at a colony much nearer, possibly on Lough Neagh.

The same bird was still at Sprucefield yesterday, as was one of my birds, 2ACS.

Many thanks to Eoin for the information.