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Bird spotted on February 8th 2014 in Bucharest, Baneasa lake (44.489702 N, 26.077732 E). Ringed in Ruse, Bulgaria. Reply from the ringers: "The reported juvenile Larus michahellis "K:201" was ringed as nestling (age 1) in the town of Ruse [BG18] (43°50'51.68''N; 025°57'15.67''Е) on 14 June 2013. Ringers: Boyan Michev, Ivailo Dimchev, Kiril Bedev".
Mixed features of Yellow-legged Gull and Caspian Gull. The Caspian Gull it is not recorded as a breeding species in Bulgaria. Sorry for the quality of the pics. Any comment would be appreciated.

hi cristian,

i just checked the nesting site on coordinates. it's the roof of ruse town hall: http://www.panoramio.com/photo_explorer ... ser=303635.
i don't know of any caspian gull in BG and RO nesting on roofs but that doesn't mean anything. i'm sure most birds breeding there are YLG. as i said this one looks a lot like cachinnans, especially with that tail. although there are no really clear pics of the spread tail, there are clearly visible 3-4 narrow parallel bands proximal to the broad black band. this is quite unusual for michahellis.

lou

I will try to contact the ringers for more information.

Hello everybody! I am one of the ringers who participate in gull ringing in Bulgaria not presented on this ringing action but still. If you have any questions we are open for contact! I am from Ruse, but now most of the time I am out of the region. e-mail: straho.peev@gmail.com

Thank you very much for your reply, Strahil. I suppose that everybody here on gull-research would like to know more about this bird. I would like to know the following:
- Where exactly it was found/captured? On the roof of the town Hall?
- There are any information about the parents (description, pictures etc)?
- There are any records of breeding Caspian Gulls (Larus cachinnans)in Bulgaria and especially in Ruse?

Thank you for help.

Hi Cristian!

Yes, the bird was ringed as chick on the roof of the town Hall in Ruse same building as Lou showed!
Unfortunately we don't have any information about the parents and also we don't have any proved breading of Caspian gulls in Bulgaria!

This year we are going to increase the number of ringed gulls in Ruse on the roofs of this and other buildings in the city center and we hope to have more answers for this interesting questions in near future.

Regards!
Strahil

great news, strahil.
i suspect there might be some caspians intermixed within the colony. there is a small caspian colony on olt river (quite close, romanian plains), but yet we don't have any record of roof breeding cachinnans from romania. if the roof is large enough they might breed on it though!

lou

Hi Strahil,

Thank you very much for your quick reply. I hope that further studies will provide new information about this topic (putative Caspian Gulls breeding in Ruse).

Best regards and keep in touch,

Cristian

Hi Lou and Cristian!

This year we are going to collect more information in pictures about the breading birds in this colony.

It is very interesting that in Olt river there is Caspian gulls breading, is this on the delta of the river or somewhere else? Do you have any information for breading Caspian gulls on Danube islands between Bulgaria and Romania?


regards

Strahil

hi strahil,

the small colony is on small gravel islets with vegetation in one of the reservoirs upstream on olt river close to the town of slatina. i have no info about breeding cachinnnans on the danube islands. but i always suspected they might breed there. still it is possible that these "ostrovs" don't supply the relevant security and remoteness for caspians to breed on them.

lou