adult: July

Last update of this page: 25-07-05 18:22

By July, most adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls are very busy feeding the now fledged young. By mid-July large flocks of 100's of 1cy birds leave the colonies simultaneously and gather on the sandy beaches. The adults keep on feeding the 1cy birds on these beaches, often until the end of the month. 
The moult score on adult LBBG may be influenced by the energy and effort which is put in the feeding of chicks. In the colony, we try to score primary and wing-covert moult in relation with number of eggs or fledged chicks. Year 2002 we didn't collect enough data on this subject. However, we can represent figures of primary moult in adult LBBG which still have a strong bond with the colony. They arrive at a nearby sandy beach to drink, wash and preen quickly, leaving again within 10 minutes to fly back into the colony. Primary moult score is presented in the next table.

Tables

Some details about colour rings (CRs)

Late June, early July are the weeks to catch pulls and colour ring them. This has been done for years now at Maasvlakte, the Netherlands and most images show ringed adults from these projects. Ring projects are going on for decades already and in Vest-Agder, S Norway, over 60.000 LBBGs have been ringed throughout the years. From 1995 on, blue colour ringed LBBGs from Scandinavia turn up. Some details:

At Westkapelle, the Netherlands (see distribution), LBBGs can be found well into November. Readings of (metal) ringed LBBGs revealed some originate  from Denmark, some from Sweden and some from S Norway. Although local Dutch individuals may occur as well, bulk of the present LBBGs in November are probably Scandinavian birds. Large colonies can be found in Vest Agder (S Norway) and this is the most northern colony from which ringed Scandinavian birds occur in the Netherlands. 

But though they may be seen in NW Europe well into November, others (from the same colony) proved to be more adventurous. For instance this known long distance migrant, much in line with Finnish colour-ringed LBBG fuscus. It's a 1cy LBBG X, metal ringed Stavanger 472418 date July 5 1984 at Rauna, Farsund, Vest-Agder, Norway 58.03N 06.40E and shot October 18 1984 in Owando, Kongo 00.27S 15.44E, 6553 km to the south 3 months and 13 days later.
Colour-ringed birds from the Maasvlakte have been reported to migrate over long distances as well: they were seen at interesting location e.g. USA and Finland.

In the Ring Recovery Section, we try to plot the races of Larus fuscus to give more detials on the various migration routes.