The beginning January 2012

The beginning of my interest in Gulls and Ringing

W[E5RU] Black Headed Gull

On St Stephens day in Tymon Park, Tallaght, Dublin, while feeding ducks with my young boys, a Black Headed Gull with a white darvic ring appeared.  When I dropped the boys home, I went out with my camera and snapped my first darvic ring.  After finding out it was Dutch and reporting it to Frank Majoor, I got an almost instant reply with the life history of  W[E5RU] that it had travelled via Calais in France. I saw him again on the 28th of December 2011. I was getting hooked.

B[0HL] Herring Gull

On new years day 2012 a Herring Gull appeared overhead B[OHL]  this turned out to be ringed in 2010 on Irelands eye.  This took me a long time to track down the project and get a report.  This was the first sighting since it was ringed.  The last sentence is going to be repeated a lot in this blog.

6430814 Black Headed Gull

January 17th 2012, with the assistance of my camera and two slices of bread, I read my first metal ring.  A Black Headed Gull from Sweden.  I read lots of metal rings, but unless there is significance to them, I will not be blogging about them!  This was the first sighting since it was ringed.

W[T3PV] Black Headed Gull 1st winter

On January 18th 2012, at Sean Walsh Memorial Park I spotted T3PV, a Polish Black Headed Gull Juvenile. This was the first sighting since it was ringed.  This was turning out to be truly international bird watching.  I was still seeing E5RU, T3VP and 6430814 every week

W[E5VA] Black Headed Gull 1st winter

January 20th 2012 at Sean Walsh Park I saw another of Frank Majoor' Black Headed Gulls! E5VA was to become a regular sighting

W[NUT] Black Headed Gull

January 22nd 2012, again at Sean Walsh Park NUT appeared.  This was a Danish Black Headed Gull.  The interesting things about this bird was that although it was ringed in 2005 and seen every year on its breeding ground, they had no reports of where it was wintering.  This was a first wintering report.

R[4P5] Mediterranean Gull

January 31st gave me my first Med Gull but in another location I had been regularly checking - Dodder Valley Park in Dublin 24.  This was another bird that took 10 months to get a report back on as the person listed on the CR Ringing website was no longer involved.  4P5 had been reported in Cork, Scotland, Essex etc.  It certainly travelled.

1st Month over. 20 observations reported including 6 different Darvic Rings! Having fun!