Black-headed gulls – More rings to find

During lockdown we have occasionally walked to Gravesend Promenade for a bit of bird watching. In previous blog posts I have written about the black-headed gulls that have been colour ringed. The last few weeks have seen an explosion of colours – with blue, white and yellow ringed birds.

So here is a collection of legs – you all know what a black-headed gull looks like. It’s the gull without a black head.

Yellow 2HNR – one of our regulars for several years now.

Yellow 2SAJ A new one for us – This is the first sighting of this bird since ringed in Essex in 2016!

 

 

 

 

 

 

White VY33 Another new bird for us. It likes to feed on the grass and was ringed in Denmark.

 

 

 

 

 

Blue K133  Another new bird for us. This one is from Belarus

 

 

 

 

 

Yellow 2LLP  We found this one for the first time this afternoon. From the Netherlands.

 

 

 

 

 

Yellow 2LLN A bit muddy but another bird that turns up each year.

 

All this means that we have “down on the prom” black-headed gulls from Belarus, Poland, Denmark, the Netherlands and France. For most of them it seems that they are breeding along the coast or inland in Europe and then spending the winter in the Thames Estuary. And why not. Have a look for yourself.

 

Thanks to Sally for the photographs

Malcolm