Since the end of last year we've been collating photographs of as many of our colour-ringed birds as possible, hoping to document plumage changes of known individuals. This has come up trumps recently with some quite interesting moult recorded. Here are two of the more interesting birds which might be interesting to gull enthusiasts.
W:249 was ringed as a chick in July 2018. The photos below show the bird as a second-winter bird then moulting into second-summer plumage.
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January 2020
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February 2020
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W:369 was ringed as a juvenile in August 2019. It became very worn into its first-summer, but looks to have fitted in quite an extensive moult in a few weeks in its first autumn.
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February 2020
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June 2020
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1st July 2020
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14th August 2020
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We're not sure how much work has been done on moult progression in large gulls, but it'll be interesting to follow this in the future.
