Black-headed Gull ST318.661 (ringed as an adult at a
breeding colony in April 2018 in the TUUSULA, UUSIMAA municipality, north of Helsinki
FINLAND) was at Pembroke Castle Pond again this afternoon. We last saw it resting there
on 24th September but assume it has been around most of the time since then. There was no sign today of Polish-ringed BH Gull TJ55
(ringed on the opposite side of the Baltic coast) but we suspect that it too is probably still in the area.
Yesterday, we noted a metal-ringed Oystercatcher in a feeding
flock of 30 at Newgale. It was ringed above the tarsus joint, so the ring itself
was often quite difficult to see being partly obscured by the white body feathers. We
could just about make out possibly 819 or 019 in the ring number, but this wasn’t
enough to determine the whole sequence. There were no colour-rings. Hopefully, with a telescope, it might be possible for someone to see more of the ring and confirm the sequence.
Offshore at Newgale yesterday there were c.100 commons scoters riding
the waves in three small flocks. They were often quite difficult to see at all in the
swell but most appeared to be immatures/females with only a few adult males obvious.
There were also two paler ducks on the
edge of one of the flocks. Frustratingly they were only seen very briefly before being lost from view and not quite long enough to determine the species.
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| One of the closer to shore scoter flocks - these were often completely hidden in the troughs |