Jæren-gulls

Went to Stavanger, Rogaland this weekend with the aim of Ring-billed Gull. Have to say that I failed. Gladly everyone else failed too this weekend. Of course other rare species are exciting enough (Avocet, Med Gull and Surf Scoter, the Red-crested Pochard tricked us).

During the trip I had time to check out a lot of gull-flocks. Besides Med Gull not much exciting in them. A Herring Gull tripped me up a little while. Seams to me like it has a classic Common moult!

3cy? Herring Gull, with totally moulted back, but old wing feathers

Small gulls has arrived!

Few posts last month. That doesn't mean that there isn't gulls in Oslo anymore, just that it has came in a lot of new Black-headed Gulls and Common Gulls. Also a lot fewer ID challenges since the Herring Gulls has been given a lower priority.

So far this spring it has been found a lot of colorrings on the small gulls in Oslo. Most interesting is one from the Netherlands in the river by Lillestrøm, two from England in Oslo, and a few from Denmark. The metalringed birds are harder to read in the field, but we have managed to read a lot. Bird from England and Netherlands aren't very rare in the city. John Sandøy even managed to read a Lesser Black-backed Gull with only metal ring at Østensjøvannet. It was ringed in Spain.

Some years ago the ringers in Oslo started to tag Black-headed Gulls in Oslo with geologgers that records when the sun raise and falls. Out of the data the hope is to find out where the bird are travelling from the winter areas to Oslo, something we knows all to little about!

2AAN from England on Engervannet 07.04

JKH9 with geologger attached