French Shag on Looe Island

Recently we've been going back through some records and making sure that all of the French colour-ringed gulls seen on Looe Island (or more correctly St George's Island) over the years have been processed at the BTO end, thanks to the efforts of Claire the Warden's Assistant. There's been a Great Black-backed Gull colour-ringing project on the island since 2010 and Claire's efforts reading the colour rings are key to the success of the project. More details of the project can be found on the Cornwall Birds website.

But in amongst the gull records was a sighting of a colour-ringed Shag which is pretty unusual in the southwest. Claire photographed the bird by the jetty in December and it turns out it belonged to a French project, perhaps not surprising considering the closest UK projects are in west Wales and southern Ireland. K26 had been ringed as a chick in 2015 on Chausey, a small group of islands off the Normandy coast, geographically part of the Channel Islands group and managed as a bird reserve by the Groupe Ornithologique Normand.

It turns out that this is just the seventh record of a French-ringed Shag to be found in the UK. Of the previous six, three have been in Cornwall, sadly all young birds found dead in fishing nets (in 1982, 1984 and 1985). Of the other three, two were also in the southwest, found dead on the Isles of Scilly in 1981 and in Devon in 1989 (actually ringed 11 years earlier).

The only other record was also from the same French colour-ringing project, of a bird ringed as a chick in 2017 and seen later that year in Sheringham, Norfolk. The project on Chausey has ringed 1550 Shag chicks and remarkably these are the only two birds to have been seen in the UK, with the only other 'international' movements being two birds seen in The Netherlands. It's quite remarkable that these birds don't wander more widely, but know we all know what to look for we can hopefully find some more!

Thanks to Claire on Looe Island for sorting out all the records (and spending hours reading colour rings) and to Fabrice Gallien in France for the information on the birds and the project.

Another poor CES visit and pasty-snatching gulls

A couple of us did the postponed CES this morning at Gunwalloe and despite the mud, sweat and much cursing, managed a paltry 23 birds. This doesn't exactly compare well with the 132 bids on the same visit in 2011, but oddly does beat the nine birds from last year. Most of this morning's catch were Reed Warblers (16, including two birds ringed in 2011), but a juvenile Whitethroat and an adult Swallow added a bit of interest. Finally (!!) we also caught our first Cetti's Warbler of the year; a bird we originally ringed as an adult back in 2011 and not recaught since. Having said that, one of the 2011 Reed Warblers hadn't been caught since ringing either...

On the gull front, last week was a bit manic, variously ringing 'pasty-snatching' gulls in St Ives (10 adults), rooftop gulls in Falmouth (nine chicks) and Great Black-backed Gulls on both Mullion Island (16 chicks) and Looe Island (74 chicks). The latter isn't our project, but read more about it on the Tamar Wildlife site. All of these gulls also received shiny new colour rings, so ones to keep an eye for in the future.

Blue W:186, caught with the help of an ice cream, turned out to be the
regular bird that holds territory at Rod's Deckchairs in St Ives

Sunny day on Mullion Island ringing gull chicks (Daisy Salmon)

We've also just seen the final county ringing totals on the BTO's online ringing report and it's interesting to compare with group totals. This is more a reflection of the lack of ringers in Cornwall, but in 2013 the group ringed ALL of the Storm Petrel (235), Cormorant (11), Shag (6), Kittiwake (10), Dipper (3), Stonechat (15), Wheatear (3) and Linnet (45) ringed in the county! Blowing our own trumpet a bit, we also ringed more than 90% of Meadow Pipit (392), Goldfinch (314) and Reed Bunting (48) in the county. So again a big thanks to everyone who helped out or let us ring on their land in 2013.

At the county level, more Great Black-backed Gulls (80) and Jackdaws (480) were ringed in Cornwall in 2013 than any other county, withe other notable totals for Rook (62, beaten only by Sussex) and Yellow-browed Warbler (19), losing out to the Northern Isles: Orkney (29) and Shetland (31).

Geeb-fest at Lizard Point

The last couple of weeks have seen large numbers of Great Black-backed Gulls (and the odd Iceland and Glaucous Gull, and even a smart Kumlien's Gull!) gathering on the reef at Lizard Point. There seems to be an endless stream of colour-ringed birds in amongst them as well, with birds from as diverse places as Norway, Wales, Channel Islands and France! So far we've recorded 13 different colour-ringed birds, and  the origins of some of those we've photographed (well Tony has photographed) are below.

JP164 was ringed as a chick at Risøy, Mandal, Norway in June 2011

White LAK2 was ringed on Looe Island, Cornwall, in June 2010 and has been seen several times in Guernsey

White LAY4 is another Looe Island bird, ringed in July 2012 and has previously only ventured as far as Camel Estuary

Black 96N was ringed in Normandy, France, in July 2013 and has been seen at Dawlish Warren, Devon, in October and December

Black 25L was ringed in Normandy in May 2012 and has been seen multiple times in Guernsey, lastly on 22nd February

P01B was ringed at Portland Breakwater, Dorset, in June 2013, and this is the first sighting since ringing

Yellow 0KK5 was ringed as a chick on Lihou Island, Guernsey, in June 2010. It has been regularly seen on the islands since ringing, and was also seen on the Plym Estuary in August 2012.

Yellow 0TT6 was too distant to photograph (and a bugger to read!), so here's a photo of it when it was ringed on Lihou Island, Guernsey, in June 2011. It has also been seen at Dawlish Warren, Devon, in April 2012.

Yellow 1PP7 was ringed as a chick at Jethou, Guernsey, in June 2013. The only sighting since then was on Looe Island, Cornwall, on 20th January 2014.

Green M65 was ringed as a chick in June 2013 at Iles Saint-Marcouf, Manche, France. Interestingly it was also seen on Looe Island on 17th January and 25th February.

Among a few other interesting birds was Herring Gull Red S:037 which I originally saw in Newlyn Harbour in October 2011. It had been rehabilitated and released at Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, in July 2011, and was reunited with me again at Lizard Point on 11th March!

Welsh wanderer

Although not strictly a West Cornwall Ringing Group bird, Great Black-backed Gull L:AU8 has been seen on our patch a couple of times...

It was ringed as a chick on St George's Island, Looe, in 2011 and was first seen on Hayle estuary in October 2011. It wasn't reported again until 24th September when it was on Skokholm Island, Pembrokeshire, and then the shockingly bad iPhone-scoped photo below (mine...) came from Copperhouse Creek, Hayle, just 26 days later (10th October).

Presumably this bird won't breed for another couple of years and will continue to wander, so where will it turn up next? Hayle is a great place to look for colour-ringed gulls and if you're lucky enough to find one then details of project coordinators can be found on the cr-birding website.