Bus pass boys at the beach

Allan Hale writes:

The “Bus Pass Boys” are a group of birding pensioners, two of whom are ringers. We make regular visits to Great Yarmouth beach in Norfolk to read colour rings on Mediterranean Gulls, some of us since 1999 (when we didn’t possess bus passes!). Our first birds are on site from about mid-July and most are gone by mid-March.

Mediterranean Gull at Great Yarmouth. Photo taken by Allan Hale.

We have identified nearly 100 different Mediterranean Gulls that were ringed in 10 different countries. They have originated from Belgium, Germany, France, Poland, Britain & Ireland (only two), The Netherlands, Denmark, Czech Republic, Hungary and Serbia. There have been multiple sightings of many of these gulls (click here for a complete ringing scheme overview of recoveries for Med Gull). Many valuable life histories have been identified, with some of the birds mentioned above having also visited Spain, Portugal and The Azores.

Some of our Mediterranean Gulls have been shown to reach a ripe old age. Two of the birds we have seen this winter were originally ringed in 2001, one of them already three years old when ringed.

The BTO were impressed with our efforts and they suggested in 2013 that we should have a “joint venture” to try and cannon net some of these birds and fit them with British colour-rings. Very few Mediterranean Gulls are ringed in Britain so we took this as a challenge! Our aim was to add to the pool of ringed birds at Yarmouth and to further understand where these wintering birds originated. Maybe British breeding birds are there – we just didn’t know.

Stunning summer plumage Mediterranean Gulls. Photo taken by Irina Samusenko.

It wasn’t as easy as we had hoped. It is well known that Mediterranean Gulls are more intelligent than the people trying to catch them (most are also better looking!) At time of writing we have caught and ringed 46 Meds and had 'our' birds seen in The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Poland. We have also establish that some British-breeding Mediterranean Gulls winter at Great Yarmouth.

Last week we received notification of a sighting of one of our birds that was truly spectacular. The bird had been ringed at Great Yarmouth on 22 November 2015. It was seen on the beach until the end of February 2016 then disappeared for the summer. It had returned to the beach by the end of November 2016 and remained until at least 18 February 2017. Remarkably it was next seen 15 April 2017 at Trostenetskij Rubbish Dump, near Minsk, in Belarus. ‘Our bird’ was apparently paired with a colour ringed bird ‘red PKU6’ which was ringed in Poland.

'Our bird' (right), enjoying some delights in Belarus. Photo taken by Irina Samusenko

This represents the first British or Irish Mediterranean Gull that has been reported from Belarus and it is the most easterly sighting of any of our Mediterranean Gulls.

To report any ringed or colour ringed birds please go to www.ring.ac.

Winter of the Wisp

During the winter, our population of Snipe increases with an influx of birds from the continent and in some years this could be as many as a million birds. The reports of Snipe into our Ringing Scheme mainly come from hunters reporting them shot (90%+).

Summer Snipe in Iceland - Nigel Clark

We recently heard of one of these birds being 'found' this way in County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland. This bird was ringed on 1 August 2013 as a juvenile bird at Turov, Zhitkovichi district, Belarus and made the 2,302 km movement to Ireland. This is the fourth Belarusian-ringed Snipe to be found in the UK or Ireland; the majority of foreign birds come from Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, Iceland and Denmark.

Ring recoveries show Snipe that breed in the north of the UK move to Ireland for the winter and Snipe that breed in the south of the UK move to France or Spain, with a few moving to the near continent. This draws on some parallels with Blackcap that we have reported previously, where birds come to the UK and Ireland for the winter while some or all of our UK and Ireland population go south.

So far this year the winter has been unseasonably warm, so we haven't experienced large movements of Snipe yet but in the next few weeks it is forecast that as the temperature will drop in Russia and central Europe, and so water bodies freeze over, more Snipe should reach these shores. If the temperature doesn't drop, the reporting rate via BirdTrack might continue to decrease.

Keep informed on Snipe predicted movements on the BTO Migration Blog.

Shelduck shot in Belarus an unexpected first

Earlier in the summer we belatedly received details of a ringed Shelduck from the Belarus Ringing Scheme, and subsequent communication with Highland Ringing Group highlighted that this was rather unusual and very far east. GF78567 was ringed near Castle Stuart, Inverness, in January 2003 and reported shot in autumn 2009 in the Minsk region of Belarus, but the details have only recently been processed. This is by far the furthest east recovery of a Shelduck to/from the UK (see map below from the Online Ringing Report): a British-ringed bird has previously made it to western Poland and birds ringed in in Finland, Estonia and Lithuania have been found in the UK.

Map of Shelduck recoveries to/from the UK

In fact, Shelduck is a pretty unusual bird in Belarus anyway (see the below map from avibirds),so this record is even more surprising.

Thanks to Bob Swann for bringing this to our attention.