Many gulls around Guernsey have coloured plastic rings. Most were ringed a few years ago at Chouet where hundreds of gulls congregated around the refuse tip. Each bird has its own unique code and when a sighting is reported at http://birdrings.digimap.gg/?fbclid=IwAR1Hu8d44Y6EX0CoZynUeAviKoNdyTIjLSl-AA7lDzYd6GN5MIRGtQ1jkVk previous sightings of the individual are shown. I photographed the Herring Gull in the main picture this morning, sitting on top of buildings on the Cambridge Berth. It looks as though it could be on some kind of CCTV – I rather like the fact that it has its own little windscreen wiper!
This gull was ringed by Paul Veron at Chouet on 21st May 2014. It has been reported ten times sine then, every time at St Peter Port Harbour, so it is a sedentary bird.
A Great Black-backed Gull was recorded at Lihou Island yesterday, but back in December 2021, it was seen at Looe Island in Cornwall. It was ringed on Jethou in 2014 and has also been seen on the Lizard in Cornwall, St Austell in Cornwall and at Dawlish Warren in Devon. It has also been over to St Ouen’s in Jersey.
Many cameras will now pick up the ring codes and anyone can register on the website to enter a sighting and contribute to the scheme. Paul Veron has done a huge amount of work in setting up the scheme and in doing a lot of the ringing. It has given important insights into gull movements. A few gull chicks continue to be ringed, but not to the extent of several years ago when a team of ringers undertook cannon netting at Chouet.
To see more about cannon netting in Guernsey, there is a Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZuNpRuvgsE
Each species has its own coloured ring: Herring Gulls are white, Lesser Black-backed Gulls have blue rings and Great Black-backed Gulls have yellow ones.
Natural history of the Bailiwick of Guernsey 