www.gull-research.org

Delfin Gonzalez, from Madrid had to be in Holland for several days, and I was very happy to meet him and show him around at some of the locations close to where I live. I picked him up at Schiphol airport and within 10 minutes we managed to tick the long-staying Glaucous Gull at Amsterdam. It was found by Delfin of course, swimming in the canal; I thought to spot the bird with it's reflecting white primaries but something odd about the long neck was missed by me. Delfin patiently explained my misidentification and the image (where I feed the bird) show he was right. Maybe I should be out more often ....

I guess this is the right bird, Delfin?

The only ring was E8CL BLack-headed Gull....

From Amsterdam we had to decide about what to see next. Weather wasn't particularly good for passerine migration, and good numbers of geese didn't arrive yet in our country. So gulls it had to be. Aim: variation in 1cy Herring Gull, still a major rarity on Mardid Gull Roost (sorry: Waste Dump) & all plumages of GBBG marinus, aslo a good inland species for Spain. First action: get some salmon left-overs...

My girl friend isn't particularly keen on me driving around with a box of smelly fish in the car (the smell can really be very persistent and may be present for weeks!) so we did our utmost best to keep everything inside the box and don't spill anything. In the harbour we spread out the bate to get marinus around the car. Not many rings this time, so sorry for posting unringed birds here! :-0

And only one green ring from IJmuiden in the harbour. Unfortunately, most birds were at the beach.

For Delfin, sub-adult Herring Gull ...

The beach held good numbers of resting LBBG and GBBG. Quite some rings as well...

AL6 orange, old Norman ring, now turned grey ad lbbg
HK12 red Helgoland 2cy lbbg
H124 red Helgoland 2cy lbbg
E699 red ad lbbg
JZ92 blue ad gbbg (pullus 2001)
H0T yellow 2cy lbbg England??? It wasn't used by Peter Stewart, neither by Paul Veron, so Helgoland as a last option???
J173W black 2cy gbbg (pullus 2011)
J6PH blue ad lbbg (pullus 2006)
DWAT blue ad lbbg Belgium
YAHJ green IJmuiden ad lbbg
YBDX green 1cy lbbg
YBAF green ad lbbg
JK2Z black 1cy lbbg (pullus 2012)
EE white tbia ad lbbg (Buijs)
several micha's, 2 cach 1cy to much delight of Delfin.

JZ92:
CR-Code Dark blue ring with white code: JZ92 LBBW(JZ92);RBM
Ringing Centre Zoological Museum (Oslo) (Norway) Ring number OA04459
Species Great Black-backed Gull Larus marinus
Sex Unknown Age Pullus
29.06 2001 Lyngholmen, Lyngdal, Vest-Agder, Norway 58°00'37"N
007°00'49"E Lorentzen, Nils Helge


J173W:
CR-Code Black ring with white code: J173W LBNW(J173W);RBM
Ringing Centre Copenhagen (Denmark) Ring number 3095273
Species Great Black-backed Gull Larus marinus
Sex Unknown Age Pullus
28.06 2011 Kovsholm, Nordjylland, Denmark 57°29'49"N
010°35'52"E Haupt, Matthias, Pedersen, Kjeld Tommy

J6PH
CR-Code Dark blue ring with white code: J6PH LBBW(J6PH);RBM
Ringing Centre Stavanger Museum (Norway) Ring number 4251406
Species Lesser Black-backed Gull (intermedius) Larus fuscus intermedius
Sex Unknown Age Pullus
15.07 2006 Rauna, Farsund, Vest-Agder, Norway 58°03'33"N
006°40'10"E Bentsen, Thomas

JK2Z:
CR-Code Black ring with white code: JK2Z LBM;RBNW(JK2Z)
Ringing Centre Stavanger Museum (Norway) Ring number 4261543
Species Lesser Black-backed Gull Larus fuscus
Sex Unknown Age Pullus
28.06 2012 Revsholmen, Arendal, Aust-Agder, Norway 58°30'46"N
008°56'39"E Lome, Carsten

It's rather easy, to study gull plumages in IJmuiden harbour. Herring Gulls eat bread out of your hand, and if that's still to far a distance, just grab the bird and examine it in the hand! I guess Delfin was a bit surprised that you can just pick up the bird, turn it around and observe it from all angles, put it back in the group again and go on feeding bread to them. Well, that's just the way it is I'm afraid...

The "never-ever-absent" 3cy HG: NLA5.463.321. And a few waders on IJmuiden dam.
Delfin, it was a nice afternoon birding and good to have met you once! Hope you'll have many ringed birds back at Madrid this winter and looking foreward to the pictures.

(pictures in these posts: Delfin & Mars)

Excellent report of our visit to IJmuiden and Amsterdan chanel.
I appreciate so much your hospitality, was a great pleasure to meet you. Was really impressive how you catch a HG with your hands. I learned a lot from your explanations in how to distinguish the gull ages, manly in HG, as all of you know every winter we sight 5 to 10 HG in Madrid rubbish dumps and in some cases we have serious problems to be sure that is a HG and not a YLG., Mars you are an excellent teacher and your deep knowledge of gulls will help me to identify HG this autumn/winter.
Mars, as I told you, I will be more than happy to be your host if you come to Madrid, and of course we will drink a bear with all members of Madrid Gull Team.
Again many thanks.
Best wishes
Delfín