More than just snow bells ringing

Here's a little Christmas present. A load of ringed gulls, all photographed this year and from a variety of different schemes with each bird and its individual history. This is likely to be it for me and reading rings in 2013, as I'll next be on the tip in January. Enjoy and have a very merry Christmas.

first-winter Herring Gull VHB - ringed as chick at Havergate Island, Orford, Suffolk on 1st July 2013. After NTGG birds, Mike Marsh's red-ringed Suffolk birds are the most frequently encountered rings.

adult Herring Gull T.841 - ringed as a breeding adult at East Tullos Industrial Estate, Aberdeen on 02/06/13

2nd-winter Caspian Gull XCDD - ringed as a chick in Lausitz, Germany (close to the Polish border) in a mixed colony where Caspian Gulls dominate.

4th-winter Herring Gull PH.AS - seen at the tip three times in 2013 (in both winter periods), it was ringed in Belgium at Zeebrugge (Voorhaven), West-Vlaanderen, on 8th July 2010 and subsequently seen in northern France.

adult Black-headed Gull 2BSR - ringed at Rainham on 2nd March 2013. As well as the red rings on the large gulls, yellow rings are used by the North Thames Gull Group on Black-headed Gulls.

2nd-winter Caspian Gull PLUK - ringed as a chick on 29th May 2012 in this colony at Jankowice, Babice, Poland. By 24th August 2012 it had reached Snogebæk Harbour, Denmark and then a couple of weeks later it was photographed in Sweden at Baskemölla, Skane on 7th September 2012. On 29th March 2013, it was at Koningspleij, Arnhem, The Netherlands before going to Belgium at Les Barrages de l'Eau d'Heure on 5th April 2013, Ueckermünde harbour, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany on 15th August 2013 and at Skillinge, Skane, Sweden on 22nd September 2013

adult Herring Gull 1A - ringed as a chick in The Netherlands at Vlissingen-Oost, Zeeland on 2nd July 2007, I also saw this bird on the tip in January 2012. It has spent much of its time on the European North Sea coast, in Belgium, France and The Netherlands.

Herring Gull 2495 - ringed on Seamer Carr landfill site, near Scarborough, North Yorkshire on 13th May 2011

leucistic 1st-winter Great Black-backed Gull J5493 - ringed at Bergekilen ytre, Mandal, Vest-Agder, Norway on 20th June 2013 as a chick, still there on 30th July 2013. One of three chicks from normally pigmented parents, it and one sibling are leucistic while the third chick is normally pigmented

adult Great Black-backed Gull DK8T - ringed on the tip on 12 October 2012. One of 81 North Thames Gull Group rings I've read during the year (on the tip, Crossness and at Rotherhithe)