Thursday 5 November 2015

Returning Black-head

Not a post about unwanted skin blemishes but, yesterday, I was pleased to see that Black-headed Gull IA141745 had survived to return to Orrell Water Park for a fourth winter. This bird was originally ringed as an adult on 29/04/2012 at Bohmke und Werder, Mecklenburg - Vorpommern, Germany. As it was an adult when ringed there is no way of knowing just how old this bird actually is other to say that it must be at least 5 years old but it could be much older. The current longevity record for a Black-headed Gull from British ringing is 32 years, 4 months and 9 days (details from the 2014 BTO online ringing reports) so I could be recording this bird for a good few years to come, assuming both it and I have a good few years left in us.


Returning Black-headed Gull






An update on recent ringing activities will come in my next post.

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