My first 2 ring-recoveries!

I've received my first two recoveries from Kane over the last week or so, and both have been ring recoveries from Black-headed Gull - my favourite ringing species!

EY02115
I ringed this bird on our 2nd trip to the Killington Black-headed Gull colony back on 20th June this year. On 25th November, Kane and Gillian were ring-reading 90km south of Killington in a Manchester park only 5-10 minutes away from Kane's house when he read a ring that sounded familiar. It turns out that it was on my birds - EY02115! Remarkable!


EX54095 (2A07) - Loch Ryan, Stranraer has now been the location for two of our darvic ringed Black-heads re-sightings. The first was one of the Killington chicks (2A64) but in the last week, 2A07 (above right hand bird) has also been seen. This was one of the first Black-heads I ever hand caught at the services at Killington. The re-sighting was 166km away from the ringing location and 185 days later.

I personally believe the reason Black-headed Gulls are so great to ring is because they are stunning birds, albeit generally overlooked; handcatching is one of the most exciting and enjoyable methods of catching birds, their affinity to duck ponds means that recoveries can be very frequent. There are lots of foreign recoveries also which makes ring-reading very exciting.