A look around Bracelet Bay on Sunday turned up at least twenty Mediterranean Gulls split between their usual piece of roadside grass and the beach below. As always I studied each one to see if any were ringed and found three that were. The first was a juvenile bird (Green 3T9) which was ringed as a chick this year at Barbâtre in Western France.


Next up was White 3K80, hatched in Belgium in 2006. The second photo of this bird gives an excellent comparison with the similar but far more numerous Black Headed Gull. Key identifying features are a thicker blood red beak on the Mediterranean as well as white tail feathers.



The final ringed bird was Red YHE8, a Serbian breeder.


The three birds above were also present on the 4th September when Barry Stewart recorded them. I have borrowed their family histories from his blog but will be sending my sightings off as well to help build the migratory knowledge of this species. I also took photographs of a couple of unringed birds which probably hail from similar localities as those above.