Colour-rings

We're always on the lookout for colour rings when we're out and about. Greater Flamingos, Spoonbills, Black-tailed Godwits and various gulls are the species on which we most often find them.

Several of the Audouin's Gulls that we've seen this winter around Tavira have been ringed. Mostly they're birds that were ringed at the nesting colony in the Ebro Delta in Catalonia. One that we reported in November was ringed there as a nestling in June, 2000 and in a previous winter had been seen at nearby Santa Luzia. Another, however, was from Isla Moltona at the southern end of Mallorca.

Audouin's Gulls

This Lesser Black-backed Gull is one we spotted earlier this month at Olhão 'docapesca'. It's obviously a bird in its first winter and we are told that it was ringed in June 2009 at Gloucester in the UK. We're also told that it's a female.