The life of PNXB

The life of Saturday's 3rd-winter Caspian Gull was revealed today when, having submitted the ring details, got a response from the ever efficient Polring - they pride themselves in a turnaround of two working days!

3rd-winter Caspian Gull PNXB, Dungeness, Kent 12th December 2015

Anyway, PNXB was ringed as a chick in southern central Poland at the Kozielno, Paczkow on 24th May 2013 and ringed by Jacek Betleja. It's a site I know well, having visited the colony a couple of springs ago; the birds nest in the long grass and when the chicks are ringed all adults disperse so it's very difficult to ascertain the exact parents of each chick. The colony these days is predominantly (or nearly all) Caspian Gulls.

Polish Caspian Gull colony - the birthplace of PNXB and several other Casps to grace British shores

So after leaving the nest, PNXB headed west a bit and was seen near Poznan, Poland from 9th to 15th July 2013. It was then seen next at Den Haag, Netherlands on 3rd August 2013, then Scheveningen harbour, Netherlands on 8th August 2013 and Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, France on 12th September 2013. All went quiet til over a year later when seen at Wimereux, Pas-de-Calais, France on 29th November 2014 and then Le Portel, Pas-de-Calais, France on 28th August 2015 before turning up at Dungeness on Saturday.

Interestingly, the two red ringed first-winter Caspian Gulls that I saw at Dungeness in November were also born at this colony. Jacek and his team started off with green rings in the early days, transferring to yellow rings and then 2014 and 2015's offspring have been given red rings.