Gull-fest at Coverack

The last few days have seen increasing numbers of gulls following fishing boats into Coverack harbour. Whilst the highlight for many are the four (or more) Glaucous Gulls there, members of the ringing group have been focusing more on reading colour rings.

As many as a thousand gulls are in the bay at any one time

Whilst birders focus on the first-winter Glaucous Gull (left), others are more interested in colour-ringed birds, such as this yellow-ringed Great Black-backed Gull from Guernsey (right)

Over the last few days, we've managed to read rings on 18 different birds, including birds from France, Guernsey (4), Skokholm, Denny Island in the Bristol Channel, Portland, Looe Island (5) and Falmouth (5).

W047 was ringed in Falmouth and is usually seen at Helston Boating Lake. It was seen there as recently as 21st before taking up residence at Coverack from 24th.

DAC was ringed on Denny Island in the Bristol Channel in 2013. It has since been seen on the Camel Estuary (21/12/13), Cadgwith (26/1/14), Chew Valley Lake (11/8/14) and Blagdon Lake (15/10/14), before turning up at Coverack this week.

Red W:043 is from Skokholm Island in south Wales, and was seen sat close to blue W:043 which is one of our own Herring Gulls from Falmouth!

Just to keep everyone happy, here's a couple of photos of Glaucous Gulls, showing a very bleached bird and a very fresh one.