Up until fairly recently I attempted to disseminate interesting ring reads with photos and histories where possible, but with the volume of information coming in it has recently proved impractical to do that; but there is now getting to be enough info to begin to look at more general abstractions of data rather than individual life histories, though of course latter remain of much interest. 10-20 years ago I was not really keyed in to systematic searching for darvic rings and probably only logging a handful per year as incidental observations, many being Mediterranean Gulls, commencing with red-7P8 back in 2004 (last seen Feb-2015, 83 resightings). And while the gull numbers could be observed to ebb and flow with the seasons we really had very little idea of turnover rates or where they were coming from or going to! How things have changed, and with hundreds of ring reads we can begin to get a feel for the dynamics and also the habits of some faithful individuals resighted on many separate occasions (a number of birds now quickly recognisable before ring details read).
So a summary on the gulls data (terns to follow as not all processed yet!): a new annual peak with 301 “reads” (136 BHG, 101 Common Gull, 37 Med Gull, 16 GBB, 6 Herring and 5 LBB) (totals corrected from Tweet as had omitted some metal only reads, 9 of these in total!), with many more part reads or unconfirmed. NB - Billy and Scott will have many to add to this, obviously with many overlaps, all has already been submitted to ringers so is available for analysis.
Mediterranean Gulls featured strongly as usual, in fact a new record total of 334 "bird days" for me, with peak counts of 14 along coast or 10 in a flock (though still no comparison with Fife!). These spanned 8 different ringed birds, led by old faithful Dutch white-32A4 (11th return, now 111 resightings*, of which 4 have been during breeding season in Belgium and the Netherlands) (pic 1 below), also white-30NN, white-3VR6 (1st win), metal-3.730.492 (pic 2), metal-3.742.693; Polish red-PRK8 again (pic top); Coquet-hatched yellow-2X7R (pic 3, sadly with leg caught up in some cord) and German yellow-AS.AT (from 14/10, intermittently to year end, pic 4 taken at dusk on New Year's Eve - the only Med Gull present that day).
Also an interesting update on white-JA605 logged previously crossing the North Sea with fascinating pattern of exchanges Norway, Scotland, NE England since 2016 (when ringed as 3cy) and in Norway every April, logged on 26/4/21 in Holmesø colony, Copenhagen, 1st visit to Denmark, now identified as female from observed pair behaviour.
Black-headed Gulls were numerous, with 136 ring reads, breakdown being 48 Norwegian (just 10 birds, many regular at site), 33 Moorfoots (14 birds, again some being resident), 33 Clyde-ringed, including some from Blackness (26 birds), 15 NE Scotland (3 birds) and 10 English (4 birds) - the latter including 2 juvs from North Yorks (black-21NV, black-21JK), 1 juv West Midlands, 1 3cy Rutland. These northward dispersals are particularly interesting, something seen last year also with yellow-2C07 a 1st-sum which had been ringed at Fisher's Green, Herts, and returned this year (link, click on crosses to expand sightings). The exchanges with Norway are also fascinating, and 6 birds seen here in spring were all logged back in the Oslo area, with a total of at least 33 resightings there in the May to July period - the quickest returns being 9 and 11 days! One of them, white-JMA2 here on 6/3/12, has been logged 75 times in Norway never more than 3km from ringing site in Oslo, and nowhere else, while another, white-JMK6, with 68 resightings in same area then was at Dunbar on 5/3/21 and then at Seton 20/9-20/10/21. Then post breeding they can show up again here as early as July, old faithful green-J6H6 being back this year on 30/7 having still been in Oslo on 20/6, though most do not arrive until early autumn.
Common Gulls: most of these are Norwegians, 89 ring reads spanning 24 birds (white-J0MA, J4EA, J6XT, JA0L, JA035, JA800, JC334, JC413, JE860, JE958, JH004, JH176, JH541, JH811, JH887, JJ718, JJ811, JL273, JN117, JP032, JP329, JP359, JP503, JP514), also 12 orange rings from NE Scotland (5 birds); many fascinating histories here, have previously posted Tweets about birds from the far north, as far as Vardø (2 of 24 birds ringed seen in Lothian); another, white-J6XT, was ringed as a chick in Tromsø in 2012, now logged here 32 times, pic and map below.
Great Black-backed Gulls: 8 different birds from the Isle of May (now 24 individuals logged), including yellow-151:M and yellow-T:048, but best came last with returning Danish-ringed black-JYK05 Seton harbour 18/12.
Lesser Black-backed Gulls were all locals, and again included sat tagged bird yellow-T32:W from BTO tracking project, photo from last year.
Herring Gulls were also all UK, now around 30 overall, and mainly from the Isle of May but also now 8 ringed in North Yorks at Harewood Whin/Rufforth (yellow-Y140, Y773, YA76, YC67, YH16, YH20, YH21, YK83), but included further sightings of white-OE6:C Clyde ringed Pladda, Arran 4/7/16, apparently now summering in the Forth; bird limping heavily, hope it remains healthy! [It did, seen again in 2022, tough old things, gulls!]
Concluding on ringed gulls it is now very apparent that the vast bulk of the birds we see here originate fairly locally, particularly the large gulls, or from directly over the sea, including many of the small gulls; perhaps Med Gull excepted, there is a dearth of origins beyond those areas, though even Meds are mainly from the Near Continent. Reflecting back on fluked record of Spanish ringed BHG in 2009, that one now seems very much an outlier - indeed that may be the only non-breeding exchange between Spain and Scotland (still true for Lothian at least, ringing report). Of course there is significant bias here with so many Norwegian birds being colour ringed, and Johan Bos' earlier work on metal rings in Edinburgh revealed a greater range of origins around the Baltic. But the point remains, generally there are very few wanderers from the south.
Not ringed, but sometimes also "known" individuals - hybrid gulls again included several presumed LBB x HG and this presumed BHG x Med Gull on 14/10, which would be a first in Lothian (previously a 1st-sum in Forth at Levenmouth 1 & 5 July 1998, and an ad this summer in Clyde).
Finally waders, very few ringed birds seen as usual, but our young Norwegian Curlew returned for a second summer, shown here at the wader roost at the east end of the prom - a rare capture as very often disturbed here!
PS - I will try to update this page with further info in due course and welcome any queries/feedback. 2022 update - 18 further small gull rings in first two weeks of 2022, benefitting from favourable tides.
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