Common Gulls at Newport

The number of Wintering Common Gulls at Newport has increased markedly over the last few years. There is no suggestion from the annual reports of any overall change in numbers in Pembs, though the Atlas suggests more gains than losses in SW Wales. This amateurish graph shows the average of the Winter (Nov - Feb) Webs counts at Newport recently.

The first ringed bird I saw was in Dec 2012, & since then I have seen 13 different Norwegian birds. The Norwegian ringers allow access to their data so that you can follow later sightings of "your" birds. All have been ringed as chicks or nesting adults at a variety of sites in SW Norway. All subsequent Summer sightings are in Norway, usually at the ringing site & never more than a couple of km away. Apart from one report from Devon all UK sightings have been at Newport, with most birds being seen in several years. There are no other reports of these birds from anywhere.

The only other ringed birds were 2 ringed in Hamburg as chicks & both seen c 6mo later. I don't have access to later sightings.

Presumably there are Scottish colour ringed birds. Where do they Winter?

(Apologies for the formatting & the graph migrating from its original position between paras 1 & 2. All outwith my control)