Dutch Gull

After a bit of detective working on Dirk Raes’ fantastic European colour-ring Birding  site, we tracked down the origins of the Darvic’d Black Headed gull that we saw at Cossie Lakes on Saturday.

You can imagine how exciting it was to hear that it’s come all the way from the Netherlands, where it was ringed as an adult male breeding on an island in Veluwemeer by Frank Majoor on the 6th May 2007. 

As you can see from the E2CV’s sightings history, we are not the first South Walian yokels to report him at Cosmeston.

A big thank you to Frank for sending through this information, and we can recommend checking out his website

13-6-2007                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast eilandjes             F. Majoor

29-6-2007                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes             F. Majoor

4-10-2007                Cosmeston Lakes, Barry, South Wales                   David Gilmore      

22-3-2008                Harderwijk,                                                              Stef Waasdorp

23-3-2008                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Stef Waasdorp

26-3-2008                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Stef Waasdorp

28-3-2008                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Stef Waasdorp

8-4-2008                 Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes             F. Majoor

10-4-2008                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Stef Waasdorp

18-4-2008                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Henk van Huffelen

25-4-2008                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            F. Majoor

27-4-2008                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Benny Middendorp

2-5-2008                  Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Henk van Huffelen

6-5-2008                  Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            F. Majoor

22-5-2008                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            F. Majoor

19-6-2008                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Henk van Huffelen

13-3-2009                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            F. Majoor

22-3-2009                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Stef Waasdorp

13-4-2009                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Stef Waasdorp

15-4-2009                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            F. Majoor

19-4-2009                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Stef Waasdorp

22-4-2009                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            F. Majoor

25-4-2009                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Stef Waasdorp

29-4-2009                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Henk van Huffelen

4-5-2009                  Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Stef Waasdorp

10-5-2009                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Stef Waasdorp

3-6-2009                  Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Benny Middendorp

7-10-2009                Cosmeston Lakes, Barry, South Wales                   Michael Powell

7-11-2009                Cosmeston Lakes, Barry, South Wales                   Alex Bevan

13-3-2010                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Stef Waasdorp

27-3-2010                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Stef Waasdorp

7-4-2010                  Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Stef Waasdorp

14-4-2010                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Stef Waasdorp

19-4-2010                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Rob Voesten

5-5-2010                  Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            F. Majoor

21-5-2010                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Rob Voesten

9-6-2010                  Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            F. Majoor

14-3-2011                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Stef Waasdorp

19-3-2011                Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Stef Waasdorp

4-6-2011                  Veluwemeer, Hoogspanningsmast Eilandjes            Rob Voesten

19-11-2011              Cosmeston Lakes, Barry, South Wales,                  Cardiff Ringers

Where you from then but?

A trip to the bay this morning at ridiculous o’clock for a school morning saw two intrepid and tired ringers* bag 15 birds of various kinds. Bird of the day was this particular sedge warbler which wasn’t wearing one of our rings! Control number two!

(*at least one of which was more sleep deprived than usual thanks to some Parus driving a needlessly loud car past the house at 1am)

Bonjour Cardiff Bay

Yesterday saw us at Cardiff Bay with a session that turned out no only to be productive but also well timed; we packed up with plenty of time to spare before the rain came.

We ended the day with the details of twenty birds safely in the note book, including several white throats. Bird of the day went to this little chap:

Yes, we catch a lot of sedge warblers but not many with a French ringing scheme ring! Our first international control of 2011! Speculation is already rife within the group as to where the bird was ringed – outside money is for a reed bed in Senegal.

If the SEDWA took first place then second has to go to a female mute swan, which while being fed the remnant of sandwiches proudly displayed her pale green DARVIC ring at us. The last time we encountered a mute swan with a pale green DARVIC was at Cosmeston lakes and was on a bird released by the RSPCA – so bets are that it is a similar situation here.

The lady with the darvic is on the left

We’ll keep you posted on the details of these birds and remember you heard them here first. Well possibly from someone else in the case of the swan if someone has already reported it…