The Great Black backs on Looe Island, along with many other species last summer, had a poor breeding season. Although we counted 75 nests containing 197 eggs and two chicks in May, when it came to ringing we were only able to find 27 chicks of which 24 were colour ringed. This compares to 91 colour ringed in 2011 and 49 in 2010. It is not known whether failures occurred during incubation or nestling stages but we suspect that many […]

Looe Island is a Cornwall Wildlife Trust reserve off Looe in south-east Cornwall. It holds what is now the largest breeding colony of Great Black-backed Gulls with 78 pairs in 2012, 66 pairs in 2011 and 79 pairs in 2010. Historically, Mullion Island, off the Lizard held the largest colony. This was certainly true in the mid 1980s when the Seabird Colony Register noted 117 pairs. However, by Seabird 2000, the last complete national survey, numbers had dropped to 49 […]

The last couple of days has seen an increase in gulls using  the millpond (lake) in Millbrook with 6 species regularly seen. Yesterday I counted a record 15 Mediterranean Gulls and over 50 Common Gulls but John Nicholls counted 24 Meds. Amongst them was a french ringed bird – green ring white code 4V7 which has been seen already this winter in Looe. Both 1st winter, second winter and adult birds were present enabling good comparisons to be made. At […]