ringed gulls on the Adur (15 and 18 November)

Wednesday 18th.  I visited the Adur for a couple of hours around low tide hoping the strong winds might have brought something interesting in.  Nothing particularly unusual but at least 5 Mediterranean Gulls, 4 adults and a second-winter, was a very good count here for me.  A selection of ringed gulls proved rather frustrating.  Single adult Black-headed, Common and Herring Gulls with metal ring had either lost their colour-rings or not been fitted with them.  If the latter the chance of learning anything from them is surely negligible.  A Common Gull with a white ring, possibly Norwegian, was obscured by another gull before I could read it and all the gulls were then flushed by a Sparrowhawk.  I did not see it again despite an hour in the area looking at the sitting gulls hoping, if it were still there, it might stand up.  A local Herring Gull was standing in a shallow depression sufficiently deep to hide the final character.  I suspect it was A2FA which I have seen on the Adur in December 2010, November 2011, November 2012 and November 2014.  Of the 5 rings I did read two were Great Black-backs and three North Thames Herrings.  Also on the Adur were 4 Grey Plover, my first of the winter, and a Little Grebe.

Mediterranean Gull on the Adur, one of at least 4 adults seen

second-winter and adult

ringed Black-headed Gull, colour-ring not fitted or lost?

ringed Common gull, again no colour-ring

two ringed Herring Gulls, one ringer will be receiving an update on their bird ...

it was the North Thames Gull Group enabling a bit more history to be added to Herring Gull NW7T, ringed as a second-year at Rainham in February 2012 and seen at Warnham (by Jake?) in December 2014, it was seen on the Adur on my previous visit 

another North Thames Herring Gull read was L9HT, ringed as a first-year at Rainham Tip in November 2013 and seen in Brighton in February 2015, it was also seen on the Adur on my previous visit 

also North Thames Herring Gull T1LT, a new one for me

Guernsey Great Black-backed Gull 6AA9.  It was ringed as chick on Lihou Island, Guernsey in June 2014 and seen on Chouet Landfill Beach and then Dawlish Warren that August

Great Black-backed Gull 93R.  It was hatched at Le Havre in June 2014, seen at Brighton Marina that October, the Adur in November and the Marina again in December 2014

Sunday 15th.  Seawatching from Widewater between 07:50-08:50 produced 32 Gannets and single Pintail, Red-breasted Merganser and adult Mediterranean Gull flying west. Going through the gulls on the Adur with David Buckingham added 7 new readings for me although 3 were opposite Ricardo's rather than the Airfield presenting a minor dilemma - should I extend my core area to be from the flyover and not the Old Toll Bridge to the railway bridge? As well as 8 colour-ringed Herring Gulls there was an adult Mediterranean Gull and a Kingfisher.

presumed local Herring Gull A5CC

North Thames Herring Gull X6NT.  Ringed as a second-winter at Pitsea in March 2014, I had seen it on the Adur earlier in the month