Sunday 17 March 2013

Ringed Black-headed Gull R3

Danny 'the Pirate' was visiting from Cornwall (17th) as our respective partners were on a Hen weekend in Brighton! We headed out with Shoreham being the first destination, but the strong southerlies and heavy showers were too much for our little girls so retreated to Widewater where we fared better, feeding the gulls with yesterdays left overs! Amongst the gulls, I noticed the chap below fly in, I am sure I have recorded this gull before here before xmas and also on the Adur, but never got a conclusive reading of the birds rings...any info on this bird would be greatly appreciated! I am sure Mr Fairbank will have seen this bird locally!

 
Black-headed Gull R3 at Widewater
 




2013 - Week 11 - Round-up

Birding time was very limited this week due to the dusting of snow which grinded Sussex to a halt in the early part of the week and my children and I fakking victim to one of the many bugs that are doing the rounds at the moment! Despite this, a large cold weather movement on the 11th, resulted in many Redwing and Fieldfare observed moving purposely west, a quick visit to Goring seafront (13th)recorded my first butterfly of 2013 in the form of a Small Tortoiseshell but although the sun was out, felt far too cold for butterflies! 6 adult Mediterranean Gull's were roosting in a nearby field. Hopefully some kind of normality will restore itself in week 12!

I also received an e-mail this week about the colour-ringed Waxwing I reported at Lewes on Boxing Day. Tony Cross from the mid-wales ringing group explained that the same bird had been photographed a lot further south on the 9th March...In Geneva, Switzerland...check out his blog to see his account of this bird...needless to say they are very pleased with the recovery!

http://midwalesringers.blogspot.com