Apologies... the photos havent gone on in the order I intended.
1 - Yellow-legged Gull at the top of the image 2 - Herring Gull ring no.Y:G07 3 - juv Iceland Gull 4 - Yellow-legged Gull flying off 5 - Argentatus Herring Gull
- juv Iceland Gull on 384 building at 10.11am, still here now 1.17pm - 20+ adult Great Black-babied Gulls
- adult Yellow-legged Gull now at Redgate on 384 building - juv Iceland Gull still on 384 building - Great Black-backed Gulls up to around 35 - Argentatus Herring Gull at least 9 - also ringed Herring Gull Y:G07
-- Edited by Rob Creek on Monday 17th of December 2018 02:21:18 PM
-- Edited by Rob Creek on Monday 17th of December 2018 02:30:27 PM
- juv Iceland Gull currently on the 384 building (1.56pm onwards)
- juv Iceland Gull was present (and for the most part showed well) until around 2.20pm when a low flying helicopter came over and flushed everything from the rooftops and the yard. Most of the other Gulls returned within a minute but I didnt see the Iceland Gull again after that.
Also of note... - 12 minimum adult Great Black-backed Gulls - 7 minimum Argentatus Herring Gulls
- juv Iceland Gull present approx 11am this morning, but apart from a couple of flyover glimpses was keeping more to the BCA (car auctions) area and wasnt showing particularly well.
I see it was reported at Redgate after 3pm, and was also reported at Audenshaw shortly before.
- juv Iceland Gull on 384 building again this morning 9.58am
No sign of the juvenile Iceland Gull in 45 minutes this afternoon. - 6 adult Great Black-backed Gulls - 4 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls - 1 Argentatus Herring Gull - 1 Grey Wagtail - 1 Dunnock - 2 Carrion Crow - 5 Jackdaw - plenty of Herring Gulls including 1 very dark individual 2nd year bird and thanks for age clarification Ian - Not many Black-headed Gulls this afternoon, they mustve chosen somewhere else to forage
Juvenile iceland gull has been on & off the 384 building since 10.45am still currently present. Black headed gulls Lesser black backed gulls Herring gull Common gull Great black backed gull Have not noticed any rings on any gulls.
Possibility of 2 birds in the area Ian or am I overthinking it and its simply flown to Audy Res literally as I left?
It is of course possible but Birdguides’ timings may be rough depending on where they got the news from and the precise timing from the observer but it’s only a 5 minute flight from Redgate to Audy if it‘s being liesurley.
BirdGuides reported a juv Iceland Gull at Audenshaw Reservoirs present at 15.00hrs yesterday. The Iceland Gull I saw at Redgate was still present at 2.45pm (as my break was coming to an end).
Possibility of 2 birds in the area Ian or am I overthinking it and its simply flown to Audy Res literally as I left?
Had a reply from Mike Jackson today, the ringed Gull is indeed one of his. This is what I received.
Thanks for reporting your sighting of a colour ringed Gull. Ringing details are as follows:-
Colour ring number Y:685
BTO ring number GV 42661
Species Herring Gull (Larus argentatus)
Age when rung BTO code 3
Ringing Site, Harewood Whin, York (53.960 -1.177)
Date of ringing 7th October 2016
It was previously reported from Heaton Park Reservoir, Greater Manchester on 6th January 2017.
It looks like I've incorrectly aged the Gull. It was ringed in October 2016 and the BTO Code 3 means it hatched in that year so it's now in its 3rd year. Once again it proves to me just how difficult trying to age Gulls can be.
- A ringed Herring Gull Y:685 present this afternoon. Looks like a 2nd year bird coming into its 2nd winter. Think it's a York ringed bird, one of Mike Jackson's, and I'm currently awaiting a reply.
- Juv Lesser Black-backed Gull this afternoon bearing a light green ring on it's left with alphanumeric code N:E29. I will update as soon as I get a reply.
Hard to tell exactly but their looks to be in excess of around 120 Gulls this afternoon and all but a few (Herring Gull) look to be Lesser Black-backed !!!
A route change due to me covering other drivers, and a quiet period for Gull scarcities has meant I've not managed to add anything to this or the Smithfield thread, but I thought this was worth a mention.
Saturday 23rd June approx 12.30pm. - Lesser Black-backed Gulls 41 (mainly adults) on the 384 building. It got better as another 24 came in to land making it 65 on the building alone. More were still flying in but the refuse mound sounded as though it was being turned over and they all took to the air in a swirling mass.
1 adult Great Black-backed Gull and 2 adult Herring Gull looked a little bit out of place in amongst all those, but as expected they weren't phased and didn't move until the whole lot went up. Nice to see some Gulls in numbers for a change.
Today approx 2.50pm. Having had virtually nothing here recently, I was pleased with a sighting of decent quality for this site towards the end of my tacho break today.
- 1 Rook flew really low up Redgate Lane towards the Auctions (BCA). Bit surprised but then again I'm not sure where the closest Rookery to the city centre is for it to be unusual as such.
After 2 weeks of hardly a single Gull here (or at Smithfield for that matter) nice to finally see something of interest this afternoon, mainly Corvids though.
- 5 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls - 2 1st W Herring Gulls - 1 Raven high over, totally unexpected! - 1 Jay flew up Redgate Lane towards BCA - 3 Carrion Crow - 4 Jackdaw - 3 Magpie
Just to update on the colour ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull I saw below.
I contacted a few Gull ringing schemes, the ones that came up on cr-birding when you go through the options of the ring combination. I got email notifications of 'no such email address' one of those being an Icelandic scheme, but I did get replies from 2 others in the last few days.
Firstly from a Danish ringing scheme to say it isn't one of theirs and they haven't seen that combination before. Secondly from a French ringing scheme that dealt with Gulls touched by Botulism but it's not one of theirs either.
So this one may not be traceable for its history, for the time being, like you suggested Ian...it could be a discontinued ringing scheme.
Pete Rock (ringing coordinator) has been in touch and identified the ring combination on this Lesser Black-backed Gull as being done by Glasgow University, I've emailed Pat Monaghan there and I'm currently waiting on a reply.
Just to update on the colour ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull I saw below.
I contacted a few Gull ringing schemes, the ones that came up on cr-birding when you go through the options of the ring combination. I got email notifications of 'no such email address' one of those being an Icelandic scheme, but I did get replies from 2 others in the last few days.
Firstly from a Danish ringing scheme to say it isn't one of theirs and they haven't seen that combination before. Secondly from a French ringing scheme that dealt with Gulls touched by Botulism but it's not one of theirs either.
So this one may not be traceable for its history, for the time being, like you suggested Ian...it could be a discontinued ringing scheme.
Not been many Gulls to see here this week and on the couple of occasions there were some present... the majority of them were very high up circling, so today made a welcome change.
- 7 adult Great Black-backed Gulls - 10 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls - 2 adult Argenteus Herring Gull (no Argentatus seen) - 2 Common Gull - c150 Black-headed Gulls
-- Edited by Rob Creek on Saturday 17th of March 2018 10:02:43 PM
A quick stop and scan that paid off. I wasn't even sure it was one, I'd gone over a few Caspian features in my mind and some looked good but then some other features I thought looked good for Herring Gull. I sent the images to Ian and explained I wasn't sure but opted for Herring Gull. Many thanks to Ian and the County Rarities Committee who have accepted it as a Caspian Gull.
Tried 3 different email addresses on the cr-Birding site for the possibility of it being an Icelandic bird but all 3 attempts came back with "unable to send as no such email or user"
Mostly usual Gull species this week at Redgate but a few interesting sightings included...
- Black-headed Gulls perched on overhead wires (This was mentioned as seen elsewhere a while back on discussion)
- Lesser Black-backed Gull A very large near-adult bird with a blue ring on its left leg and a tricolour red/white/yellow ring(s) on the right leg.
I managed to view the bird in a few positions and as far as I could see, there didn't appear to be any definitive identification numbers on the ring(s). Couldn't find anything on the net after a quick search, any ideas? Cheers
One thing of note at Redgate last few days... hardly a single Gull seen on the 384 building whilst I've been there briefly or passing, but on 3 occasions including today there's been the highest number of Gulls I've probably seen here, in the air!
Must've been [a rough estimate] around 600+ birds with possibly 3/4 being Black-headed Gulls. A lot of the large Gulls were sometimes silhouettes so I couldn't even begin to decifer what was what. My apologies. (See discussion New Bird books)
Took my tacho break this afternoon at Redgate with only a handful of large Gulls making a brief appearance before flying off. Then on the way back to the depot I noticed a stream of Gulls dropping down to the left side of Hyde Rd opposite Showcase cinemas. Gorton Park was rammed with a sea of Gulls, Black-headed and Common Gulls in numbers and then a hefty sized group of large Gulls too. Great! Just my luck, half an hour staring at an empty roof I'll not get back!
A strange last few days as virtually no Gulls at all around the recycling plant until today.
250+ Black-headed Gulls 4 adult Great Black-backed Gulls 2 adult Common Gulls 1 pale Lesser Black-backed Gull, I had to look twice 2 Argentatus Herring Gull 1 very pale immature Herring Gull, I had to look twice at this one too It finally landed and I could see it was definitely a Herring Gull.
- 1 juvenile Iceland Gull TWICE briefly on 384 building. Watched it with bins then reached for camera but it flew off over my wagon TWICE !!! - Herring Gull Y:F94 again - Black-headed Gulls 340 minimum !!! - 8 Argentatus Herring Gull - 5 adult Great Black-backed Gulls - c90-100 large imm Gulls - 4 Pied Wagtails - 2 Dunnock - 6 Jackdaw - 1 Sparrowhawk right over the yard and put everything up!
Monday 12th Feb Morning (10am) and afternoon (2.30pm) visits.
Absolute shed load of Gulls on both the 384 and BCA buildings, and circling around the refuse yard, on both occasions.
- Black-headed Gulls 50+ - Common Gull 1 adult - Lesser Black-backed Gulls 4 ad - Great Black-backed Gulls 2 ad / 4 1st W - Argentatus Herring Gull 4 - Argenteus Herring Gull 6 ad (Vast majority of the large Gulls were juv and immature Herring Gulls, lots of them).
The Herring Gull Y:F94 was ringed on 30th June 2017 at Harewood Whin Landfill site near York, around 2500 Gulls have been rung there to date, and this is the first sighting of this Gull since then.
Interesting afternoon visit with a few bits to offer.
- 6 Argentatus Herring Gulls incl 1 with only 1 leg - 11 ad Great Black-backed Gulls - 4 ad Lesser Black-backed Gulls incl 1 fairly pale mantled - 1 Herring Gull - yellow ring No. Y-F94
Sunday 28th Jan (Mid-afternoon with Simon and Chris)
No Gulls on the 384 building so we scoped over to the BCA roof where they all were. - 17 adult Great Black-backed Gulls - 8 Argentatus Herring Gull - no sign of any Yellow-legged Gulls