Monday gulls

A short Thames gulling session around Chiswick Eyot on Monday lunchtime produced a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull among at least 110 large gulls. The michahellis was quite a dark and well-marked individual with scapular moult well under way, and clearly a different bird to that seen last week. I also had a juvenile on a brief pre-cricket visit on Sunday, but have no idea whether it's the same bird.

Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull, Chiswick, 8 August 2016

Arguably more interesting, though, was a blue-ringed 2cy Lesser Black-backed Gull. This is the first ringing recovery I've had over four visits in the past ten days, and nice for it not to be a red NTGG job! Suspicions that it was a Dutch bird were quickly confirmed by Roland-Jan Buijs - it was ringed as pullus on 13 June 2015 at Vlissingen-Oost, Zuid-Holland. This is the first time it's been seen anywhere since then.

2cy Lesser Black-backed Gull blue '9B', Chiswick, 8 August 2016