Recorded a couple of 'new' colour-ringed Mediterranean Gulls at the Gann yesterday, including red PYT8 which was ringed as a pullus in Poland on 20/5/2016 (53.92051600; 21.50814100).
This bird has featured on the blog before and is well know to Sam Baxter, who has recorded it at least 17 times at the Nevern Estuary between 8/9/2018 and 27/9/2020. It was also seen by Steve Jones in Fishguard Harbour on 18/7/2020, having also visited New Quay in Ceredigion on 23/9/2020 and 4/10/2019. It has not been seen anywhere other than these West Wales sites, and at 1,796km the Gann is 21km further away from it's ringing site than the next furthest (Fishguard).
Recoveries like this not only go to show how much these birds move around in general, but also locally within Pembrokeshire. Gone are the days when we could attempt to monitor their movements through identifying individuals by their head pattern and other features, as originally suggested by Graham Rees and referenced in a paper in the 1993 Pembrokeshire Bird Report. There are just too many of them now! So the colour-ringing is a revelation.
I wish I had photos to share of some of the colour-ringed Meds, but getting close enough to photograph them is a real challenge here.