2 for the price of 1

Like I do every week when I go to the supermarket, especially at high tide, I checked for rings on gulls' legs. In particular, I was hoping to see the semi-regular one, white A6LK, which I had last seen on 8th December. And bingo! at the end of the scan, when I thought all hope was gone, there it was:

I proceeded to take a few more photos, including this one. I am not entirely sure what is so attractive about this bush but a few gulls went and ate a few leaves off it.

Then on the panel with a few others (there was an exceptionally high number of them that day):

If you look closely at the one ready to land, you can glimpse an orange ring, and there it is, obvious once the bird had landed.

For once, the ring was very easy to read: YW3.T. I got the info back overnight: this Herring Gull was ringed at Pitsea Landfill site in November and mine was the first reading since. Map here.

Is that profile good for you?

I'm hoping that, like A6LK, it'll stick around and I can follow its progress from time to time.

White CC1H

A quick update on one of the colour ringed gulls from my previous post, white CC1H. It was ringed in Finland, as an adult, in 2000, making it at least 10 years old. Not much of a wonder the ring was in the state it was...

My name is Nathalie and I'm addicted to reading bird rings

My apologies... Another post mostly about colour-ringed gulls...

I was doing my patch walk by the Thames yesterday as I often do on a Saturday morning and getting increasingly annoyed by 2 guys in kayaks. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, but they kept on getting close to shore or alighting at the pier and pontoon. It was close to high tide and then birds have very little space to go to, which is good for me if I want to check for rings, but not that good as a lot of the birds just bugger off to the Wetland Centre. I had just got to Crabtree Wharf before them and had (thankfully) just finished counting the cormorants there (21) when one of the kayaks decided to hold onto the Wharf and all the cormorants and most of the gulls flew away. Nearly all the cormorants ended up going to the Wetland Centre, the gulls landed on the river but some came back. I locked onto a preening Black-headed Gull with a red ring. I didn't even need to check my notes this time to know I had already seen it as it has a pretty memorable code: A1 :)

I saw this gull in pretty much the same spot on 22 September 2009 and had a reply the same day form the ringer, Frank Majoor, that the bird had "been ringed as a first winter bird in November 2006 in Hilversum, a town in the Netherlands, some 30 km south-east of Amsterdam and 25 km north of Utrecht, according to Wikipedia". This makes it a 4 year old bird.

While I was taking photos, a 'friend' arrived saying "See, I've got a ring too!" and, yes, it had... Slightly broken, but still legible, and not one I had seen before: white CC1H. Checking the colour-ringing site told me afterwards that this bird should be from Finland. I have reported it, I'll blog the result if and when I get it.

Then I noticed that there was 1 Cormorant left and recognised it immediately. Unfortunately not because it had a ring but because it has some netting around its neck. I saw it a few times last year around October and November but had not seen it since and was beginning to wonder.

If you compare the photos with last year's you can see the netting is pretty much unchanged, that's sturdy stuff :(

Doesn't look too comfortable swallowing...

More photos of the gulls, as well as 2 oldish Tufted Ducklings, the first I have seen on the river, in my gallery.

How amazing is that?

The Black-headed have been back for a little while now, their numbers on the foreshore between Crabtree Wharf and Hammersmith Bridge are almost at winter level already. And there are a lot more juveniles this year than last. But what I'd really like is a Med(iterranean) Gull, so I keep on scanning. I mentioned it to Louis in Chiswick yesterday and he texted me that he had just seen one by the Eyot. By then, it was a bit too late for me to go and check, but, early this morning, instead of going to the allotment I went to search for a Med Gull.  No such luck. But, as I was scanning the gulls I noticed that one had a colour ring, so I grabbed my camera and tried a few shots.  At last, it got closer and presented the right profile: white UYC on right leg.

At home, I checked my records and realised I had seen this bird before, as I was off-patch, in Ladbroke Grove, last February.  There is a bridge over the canal, with a Sainsbury's on one side, it was on a building on the other side:

I did at the time report my sighting via the BTO website after I had no reply contacting the marker directly (as recommended). From what I gather, this bird has probably been rung in Denmark, but it's been almost 6 months now and I have not had any reply.  I shall try again with this second sighting, and we'll see how that goes...

A6LK still there and a pigeon

This week, the Herring Gull with ring A6LK was at the supermarket again.  Here it is with a friend.

I am still learning about gulls, but, somehow, it looks like a female to me, some je-ne-sais-quoi... One thing for sure, next to the other one, some of its feathers are well worn out, but it appears moulting may have started as some others appear brand new.

There was another ringed bird on the wharf today. I don't know if it was lost and was just resting, it stuck like a sore thumb among the feral pigeons and was not really interacting with them. There is a white pigeon in that flock but, even at a distance, I could tell it was different. Closer, I could see it has a green ring on one of its legs, but I couldn't read it.

I have tried to find out what breed it is, without success, but I have to say this is a pretty little thing compared to a lot of those fancy pigeons I have just had to look at during my search...

A6LK

About 10 days ago, scanning the gulls for rings before doing the supermarket run, I spotted this young Herring Gull sporting a fairly mud-caked white ring. After much effort and the bird turning round to offer less better views of the ring, I finally managed to read it as A8LK.
I reported it almost as soon as I came home and had a lovely reply a few days later. This bird had been rescued as an orphan from Worthing and released early August last year from East Sussex. It has been seen along the Thames in London at various times during the winter.  I didn't see it this week, maybe it has moved along or I'll see it again next week, we'll see...

It doesn't rain, it pours!

Within a few minutes of posting the previous entry, I had an email from Frank Majoor, the ringer of 'Red A1'. It had been ringed as a first winter bird in November 2006 in Hilversum, a town in the Netherlands, some 30 km south-east of Amsterdam and 25 km north of Utrecht, according to Wikipedia.

He also updated me on a Common Gull I had spotted at the supermarket on 21st February 2008. I thought I had blogged about it at the time, but it doesn't look like it after all. It was still a juvenile and had been ringed in November 2007 in Amsterdam. It was spotted back in Amsterdam a month later, which goes some way to explain why I didn't see it again then.



This is a photo I had taken at the time, with my crappy camera phone through the binoculars, and the reason why, since, I have taken my proper camera with me when I go and do the weekly shopping.

Much impressed at the speedy reply!

Speedy reply from some londonbirders too after I asked there for confirmation yesterday, and so I can update my patchlist to 59, because this morning I had another tick. It doesn't rain, it pours :) I had been counting the tits in a mixed flock of Long-tailed and Blue as they were passing through the back gardens and heard an unusual call for the area a few minutes later: a Coal Tit on an aerial right in front was making it #59. Can't have everything though, it was gone before I could grab my camera.

Gulls Gulls Gulls

I decided to go have have an early morning look at the Thames this morning, and good decision it was too!
First, on the boat pier, I checked the legs of the black-headed gulls as I usually do on the off-chance that one has a rind, and, for the first time, bingo!





A quick search once home told me that it should have been rung in the Netherlands. I have contacted the ringer/coordinator; hopefully, I'll get more info soon.

Sadly, as I was taking these photos, a dead juvenile Herring or Lesser Black-Backed Gull passed by with the tide.

Further along, by Crabtree Wharf, I'm hoping that this is a Yellow-Legged Gull as this would be a patch tick for me. It was roughly a shade of grey darker than a Herring Gull and way lighter than a Lesser Black-Backed on the same pontoon. Bright yellow legs, pale eyes with red orbital ring, fine markings around the eyes.





As it flew off, I managed this blurry flight shot:


I noticed afterwards that the afore-mentioned Lesser Black-Blacked on the same pontoon had a weird beak, I think the tip of the upper part might be broken:


And to continue on the injury theme, nearby, this (I think) Lesser Black-Backed juvenile might have looked OK on its right-hand side:



but something looked wrong with its left eye, and it was limping on its left leg, though I could not see any obvious sign of injury:



[Clicking on most of the photos should give you bigger versions]

20 April 2009

I went to the Thames this morning. On my way there I heard a familiar sound I had not heard for a little while, lifted my head and saw a peregrine, probably a female, being harassed by a mob of crows. I unfortunately lost them behind buildings but I guess they chased it away.
Tide was going up and the shore was empty at Hammersmith Bridge apart from a few pigeons, and something I had never seen before: a magpie, collecting algae and mud, I guess as nesting material. I also saw a few more birds, fortunately, between there and Crabtree Wharf:

• mallard: 16
  
• Canada goose: 3 + 2 flying over
  
• lesser black-backed gull: a pair
  
• black headed gull:2
  
• herring gull: about 7 of various ages
  
• house martin: just the one
  
• coot; 2
  
• moorhen: 2
  
• tufted duck: 8 males and 8 females
  
• great crested grebe: 1 fishing, quite close to the path
  
• house sparrow: at least 2 in the usual bush
  
• parakeet: a pair being intimate on the pontoon
  
• starling: one had twigs in its beak
  

26 February 2009

I haven't had much opportunity to go out so far this week, except for shopping, and this is on one of those shopping trip that I have seen yet another colour-ringed house sparrow, in the same spot by Sainsbury's. I also saw today the female I first noticed 2 weeks ago.

I haven't yet spotted any other ringed sparrow in the other 2 colonies I check on my patch.

The long tailed tits are still building their nest just outside the cemetery. I watched them picking up lichen/moss from a tree nearby, it looked such a small quantity, no wonder it takes them so long. I think they may be picking up material from what I am offering as I can occasionally hear their chirping at the back of the house, but if the blue tits are here they chase them away from their balcony! The blue tits are still visiting the window feeders for seeds and mealworms regularly, a great tit has started also coming for mealworm.
I have heard or seen wren and dunnock visiting the back gardens, which is a sign that they're improving I hope.

Still no sign of pink on the magnolia, but some of the daffodils are just about to bloom. The squirrels haven't managed to eat all the crocuses, so, at least at a distance, they're making a lovely blue carpet...

12 February 2009

I went to do my weekly supermarket shopping as I usually do on Thursdays, and as usual now I checked the birds on the Thames Path near it, namely the gulls and sparrows usually. As the tide was high, a lot of gulls were on the pontoon and I did a leg check but without result. I don't know if it's spring coming but the sparrows were particularly active and noisy, not just noisy and hiding in the bushes. As I was checking a female picking up twigs as nesting material, I noticed that she had colour rings on her legs, so I quickly grabbed my camera and managed to find her again. she was still picking up twigs and was still accompanied by a male.

(the blurriness comes from the fact that the photo is taken through chicken wire).
After that, I pointed my camera at all the sparrows I could see and got lucky, with a male this time:
Back home, I checked older photos, but I think I would have noticed if I had photographed some before. I have also reported my finding, I hope I'll get an answer some time...

On another note, I have finally put up some photos of the snow on 2nd February here.