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Hello,

I´m not dead but there havn´t been any large gulls in the Austrian Danube/Donau-system in the last weeks due to the very mild winter this year. otherwise I heard of 1500 (!) Caspian Gulls only in a small flat steppe lake near Neusiedler See in December, in a time when most of the large gulls should have left this area.

Last days with these extreme low temperatures some gulls from the north arrived and my friends have read some rings, even a Dutch ringed Common Gull was found for the very first time in Austria!
So yesterday I also went to Krems, where the gulls are roosting on the ice of the authorities port after feeding at the compost dump near Gneixendorf. Just when I arrived I saw the police ship, destroying completely all ice in the port!
But soon I had found the large gulls, floating downstream on pieces of ice, later flying upstream to repeat this game again. So I was able to study large gulls for the first time this winter.

2 extremely dark coloured first winter CG among them, one with almost blackish scapulars well contrasting with pale mantle and brownish coverts. The other one rather dark looking overall.
Most of the gulls have been CG, some of them HG and only 2 were 1cy YLG. Interesting for me: a rather darkeyed, strongbilled male HG.
4 Polish rings were read, among them green 231P, seen already here in 2010 and most likely ringed on 18-5-2007 at Jankowice, but I havn´t received a life history so far from Polish RC...

Some pics of floating gulls and 231P are following.
Regards
Wolfgang

Some further pics from that place, yesterday afternoon/evening:

Caspian Gulls,

2cy
3cy
YLG, 2cy
and finally - off topic - E8FX, the first Common Gull with Arnhem ring in Austria:
I hope I can continue in the next days.
Wolfgang