Another trip down to Nimmo's Pier on Sunday. Usual fair with nothing too out of the ordinary. Best result of the day though was managing to read a colour ring on a first-winter Sandwich Tern. It was associating with and still trying to beg from one adult present, possibly one of the parents? One single adult also present though no sign of the Forsters. The young bird was sporting a dark blue ring with the code UAC. As far as I can make out it hails from Grampian, in north east Scotland. Still awaiting on full details. Interesting to note that I also had a colour ringed first-winter here last winter which came from the Farne Islands in NE England. Great to have an idea of where some of our wintering Sandwich Terns originate from.
I also had the same first-winter, second-winter and adult Ring-billed Gull and a first-winter Little Gull in the same area. A first-winter colour ringed Black-headed Gull from Scotland was at Waterside also (also waiting for details on this one).
No sign of the orange harrier out on Lough Corrib later in the day, just one or two standard ringtails about. While scanning for harriers I managed to pick the Great White Egret in flight that's been hanging around for about two months now on Lough Corrib, nice way to finish up the day.
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| Colour ringed first-winter Sandwich Tern, Nimmo's Pier. |
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| Colour ringed first-winter Sandwich Tern on the left with an adult, Nimmo's Pier. |
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| Colour ringed first-winter Sandwich Tern on the left with an adult, Nimmo's Pier. |
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| Colour ringed first-winter Sandwich Tern, Nimmo's Pier. |
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| Colour ringed first-winter Sandwich Tern, Nimmo's Pier. |
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| Adult Common Gull |
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| Same Common Gull with pale irides. |
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| Second-winter Ring-billed Gull |
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| Second-winter Ring-billed Gull |
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| Second-winter Ring-billed Gull |
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| Adult Ring-billed Gull |
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| Adult Ring-billed Gull |
Young Sandwich Terns in the Northern Adriatic (the triangle between Venice, Trieste and Rijeka) are still 'on the scrounge' during the January duck counts FWIW. The species is a resident in the area (these are birds born in the lagoon of Venice and the Po Delta).
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