December 18th - First Lough Mask Darvic ring.

December 18th to 31st

First Lough Mask Darvic Ring!

E5VA was still present in Sean Walsh Park and reported on the 21st 23rd and 24th.  Always at lake 3 and I check lakes 1,2,3,4 & 5 every week.  Always good numbers of black headed gulls at every lake.  Likewise the Swedish BHG  6430814 is always at lake 5

Black Headed Gull E5VA.

Black Headed Gull Yellow[217G]Black

On December 29th, a late Christmas present was my first Lough Mask Yellow Darvic Ring.  At Tallaght Community School in Tymon Park there is a day time roost site.  There, a long way from the road was a yellow ring.  "Black-headed Gull 217G - this individual was colour-ringed as a chick at Lough Mask, Co. Mayo on 02/06/2009 and this is its first resighting since that date".  Another first re-sighting, this time 3 and a half years after ringing.  I saw 217G the next day as I tried to work out where it was feeding.

What makes this also interesting is, I had assumed this roost at Tallaght Community School was used by the Tymon Park Gulls as it is only 400m from the lake.  But I checked the Tymon flock at 'feeding time' every afternoon (during my Christmas Holidays) , 400 Black Headed Gulls but no 217G Darvic.  The numbers in the roost was unaffected by feeding frenzy just down the road.

Tymon Park - Feeding Time

My first year reading rings came to an end.  My initial enthusiasm still there but many, many uneventful days gull watching.  Thousands of Photos of Gull Legs trying to get complete metal ring readings.

Coloured Ring Reported = 51  (18 different Individuals)

Metal Rings Reported = 27  (11 different individuals)

Not bad for my first year.