April - July 2012

Blue Darvics from Irelands Eye

A blog about coloured rings on Gulls from my base in Tallaght, Dublin, Ireland

This is my first year ring reading gulls and suddenly there were no gulls with rings left, they had all gone to their breeding colonies abroad. I read that some Black Headed gulls nest in Dublin bay but soon learnt, that nobody rings them. So despite them all sitting nicely on railings, where you can scan 400 gulls in 10 minutes, none had rings and none were lightly to have rings. So things slowed to a stop and I returned to birdwatching

Poolbeg, Dublin

I still did my walk most lunch times and the Park still produced the full range of Gulls, including this nice Iceland Gull which stayed around for a few weeks.

Iceland Gull in Sean Walsh Park, Tallaght, Dublin

Herring Gull 0JH in Bray, Co Wicklow

The on the 23rd of June out bird watching in Bray. I spotted a blue ring on a Herring Gull.  Not the best photo in the world as I cut its wing tips off, but another that Chris Honan had ringed.  Some times ring reports take time and it was November before he confirmed the Herring Gull was ringed in Irelands Eye off Dublin in July 2010.  (I was not the first to see it, it had been seen twice before - once in Bray and once in Bullock Harbour a few miles up the coast)..

Great Black Backed Gull - Blue[1JR]White

Great Black Backed Gull - Blue[2KU]

In July while bird watching in Bullock harbour, I spotted 1 blue ring, 1JR.  I then spotted an Adult Great Black Backed Gull Blue 2KU.  Again it took till November for the reports to come back. But come back they did.

1JR - Ringed as Pullus on Irelands Eye Island, Co Dublin in June 2011 and it had been seen in Bullock Harbour 4 times previously

2KU - Ringed as juvenile on Irelands Eye Island, Co Dublin in 2009. .  This was the first sighting since it was ringed.

I tried again at Bullock harbour on July 17th 2012.  No Darvic rings but.........................

GBB HT71429?

..............as hard as it is to read a metal ring with Bins or scope, the great black Backed Gulls I tried reading all had their rings on up side down!  That just adds to the difficulty!

A rather uneventful few months as regards ring reading, but finished on a high.

Graham