On March 1st 2011, The North West Black-headed Gull project began as Kane, Ciaran, Chris, Chris Piner and I went up to Bowness-on-Windermere and caught this stunning adult Black-headed Gull. It was the first bird to be caught for the project and was the only bird we caught on the first day, so left quite an impression. It was ringed by Chris Piner as he had never had the opportunity to handle a Black-headed Gull and we had no right to deprive him of this wonderful experience! The bird was last seen at Bowness on 17th March
Just 7 days later, Kane got an email off Morten Helberg from Oslo, Norway to tell him that he had seen 2A00 close to his home! What incredible news as this was the first bird we'd ringed in the project and it had travelled 1026km in just 7 days!
He was seen in Norway throughout the summer until he was suddenly resighted back at Bowness on 28th November 2011. We were lucky enough to catch up with 2A00 on Christmas eve on our annual trip up to Bowness. This was the first time Gillian, Craig and Heather had a chance to see him and they found themselves charmed by his confident stance and bulging throat.
On 3rd April 2012, Carsten from Norway emailed Kane to let him know that 2A00 was back in Oslo, back on territory and ready for another year of breeding.
Sadly, within the last week, Carsten found 2A00 dead, which for someone who has followed his story over the past year, saddens me!
In just over 12 months, we recorded that 2A00 travelled a minimum of 3078km and considering that we caught him as an adult, who knows how many kilometres he travelled in his life.
This blog post is a slight tribute to the gull that started off the North West Black-headed Gull Project. Hopefully it does 'our boy' 2A00 justice! RIP little man!
1 comment:
An excellent and interesting account of 2A00 which ends on a sad note, but good to see some 'feelings' coming into play re your account of finding this bird dead in Oslo.
Keep up the good work Zac.
Post a Comment