Black-headed Gull - White AD394

A first-winter bird with a white colour-ring was photographed recently by Robin Vage at Corbet Lough in County Down. He got in touch to ask if we knew which project it belonged to and we pointed him in the direction of Sonke Martens in Germany.

Photo by Robin Vage

Robin reported his sighting and quickly heard back from Sonke that this bird had been ringed as a chick in June this year at a site north of Hamburg. Distance from ringing site to Corbet is around 1050km.

Red - Ringing location
Orange - Re-sighting location

This is the first re-sighting of this bird and their first report from Northern Ireland. Another fantastic record of a continental bird wintering here. 

Many thanks to Robin for the report and photo and to Sonke for the information.