Sunday, March 18, 2012

TRAVELLER



I am grateful to my colleague  Dick Newell for the following record of a Lesser Black-backed Gull, a well-travelled and well-recorded bird if ever there was one:
red SDJ                 (metal ring GA37303)
14/07/2002         Orford Beach, Orfordness, Suffolk  -  RINGED AS PULLUS
01/10/2002         Tostock, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
10/01/2003         Agadir   MOROCCO  30.26N  09.36W
01/07/2004         Cley-next-the-Sea, Norfolk,
22/10/2004         Westkapelle, Walcheren, Zeeland, NETHERLANDS   51.32N  03.26E
31/03/2005         Gijon, Asturias, SPAIN   43.32N  05.38W
03/02/2006         Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire
18/09/2007         Earsham, Norfolk
17/01/2010         Drinkstone, Suffolk
06/02/2012         Milton tip, near Cambridge
Whenever I see small flocks of this species of gull in the field below mine, I wonder how many have a similar story to tell?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Over ten years that's a very impressive record. Birds do seem to be reasonably long lived, don't they?

Jake Allsop said...

Yes, indeed, but I think you will find even bigger surprises on the BTO website where they give longevity records for every species:
http://blx1.bto.org/ring/countyrec/results2010/longevity.htm