Saturday 11 February 2017

A Colour-Ringed Glaucous Gull!

He who dares wins!

Today was bitter cold and the light was terrible, but still I headed to Shawell. I had arranged to meet a friend there, so I had to turn up.

I was there first and started to search through the gulls. Initially there was nothing of note, but a juvenile Iceland Gull flew in followed shortly after by a new juvenile Glaucous Gull. The Glaucous Gull was quite a dark individual and obviously different to the three others I've seen this year. The Iceland Gull appeared to the same juvenile that I saw in January.

When Tim arrived the two white-wingers were still there.




Mid-morning I spotted an adult Glaucous Gull and I was surprised to see that it was colour-ringed. Reading the orange ring was very difficult. I knew from the ring that it was a North Thames Gull Group bird. Eventually I managed to read G1NT. It was ringed at Pitsea Landfill Site, Essex in 2015. There are also sightings of this gull from Northamptonshire and Cheshire.


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