GBb Gull project – January 2013 update : Tamar Wildlife

GBb Gull project – January 2013 update

Avocet On January - 17 - 2013

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 chicks died soon after hatching when they would be vulnerable to chilling and exposure in the wet conditions.

However there have been sightings of 55 ringed birds between September and mid December. Many of these can be attributed to the efforts of John Nicholls and Derek Spooner who have regularly scanned through the gulls in Looe Harbour and on the East Looe River where loafing gulls can often be found. Of the 48 birds John and Derek reported, over 81% could be described as local birds, ie they had been recorded within 5km of Looe Island on more than one occasion but nowhere else. 10 birds were new sightings; two ringed in 2010, 5 in 2011 and 3 in 2012. Only 3 birds had previously been reported away from the Looe area but have returned. These are listed in Table 1.

Table 1

Ring No	Year of ringing	Sightings away from Looe		Looe Harbour or East Looe sightings Sept-Dec 2012
L:AH9	2010	Lowland Point, Lizard, Apr 2011	Plym Estuary Devon, Aug 2012	17 Oct
L:AJ0	2010	Guernsey, Feb and March 2011	Mevagissey, Jan 2012	3 dates in October	3 dates in November
L:AP5	2011	Guernsey, Oct 2011	Dawlish Warren, Devon Sept 2012	16 Nov

There were 7 reports away from Looe Island between September and December. These are listed in Table 2.

Table 2

Ring No	Year of ringing	Sightings away from Looe, Sept – Dec 2012		Distance /Bearing	Duration
L:AD0	2011	L’Eree Beach, Guernsey	5 Sep	161 km / 126	1 yr, 73 days
L:AJ8	2010	Crabby Beach, Alderney	9 Sep	175km / 112	2 yr, 89 days
L:AJ6*¹	2011	Dawlish Warren, Devon	14, 16 & 30 Sep	78km / 67	2 yr, 96 days
L:AX6	2012	Pembroke Beach, Guernsey	24 Sep	116km / 123	92 days
L:AP5*²	2011	Dawlish Warren, Devon	29 Sep	78km / 67	1 yr, 97 days
L:AV0	2012	Dawlish Warren, Devon	5 dates between 12 Oct & 3 Nov	78km / 67	132 days
L:AV6	2012	Coverack, Cornwall	13 Dec	58km / 233	172 days

*¹previous sightings at Le Rozel, Normandy in Aug 2011 and Slapton, Devon in Oct 2011. *²previously sighted in Guernsey in Oct 2011.

Two further reports of interest were received. The first of these, L:AH1 ringed in 2010 was seen at O-Grove, Galicia, NW Spain in Aug 2012, 9 km north-west of where it was first seen in Oct 2011. This bird had its tongue poking through a hole in its throat when first seen and still had the dried up remnants of its attached 10 months later. The injury had obviously not hindered its ability to forage effectively.

The second was the late report of L:AP0, ringed in 2011 and found badly decomposed on the beach at Kerbinigou à Plovan, Brittany on 18 October 2011. This is our third report from Brittany.

In addition to the Looe project sightings, John and Derek have recorded 6 French ringed Great black backs, 4 Norwegian, 3 from Guernsey and 3 British ringed birds.

This on going project will continue to add to our knowledge of Great Black Backed Gulls. We hope to investigate opportunities in the future for satellite monitoring of the adults to look at foraging patterns during the breeding season and to investigate further the causes of nest failure.

Bruce Taggart, January 2013