1st January 2010 - A Great Way to Begin a Year

Firstly, information has come back on another of the Herring Gulls seen at Warnham LNR on 21st Dec which was ringed at Pitsea Landfill Site on 21st March 2009 as a 2nd winter bird having been born in 2007 and was the first recovery since being ringed.

Staying on the Herring Gull theme, a member of public came in to Warnham LNR to say that a bird was in distress on the Millpond so I went quickly to look and found that a young Herring Gull couldn't take off from the water because it was being held down by a plastic bag that had got attached to its leg!! The plastic bag was wrapped around its foot (probably picked up from the local tip) and when it landed in the water the bag filled up and the bird was then too heavy to take off! I quickly grabbed the nearest volunteer (Sue Cocker) and rowed out to the bird grabbed it rather easily and at that moment another one with the same type of plastic bag landed and was in the same predicament. So after bagging the first we then hurried over to the second grabbed it and Sue had to hold it all the way back to the shore as we had only taken one bag out with us. All of this infront of an amassed crowd of visitors who were very interested to see what we brought back (photos below).


This is the third and fourth Herring Gull that we have ringed here, all by the same means and makes me wonder how many haven't survived due to plastic bags!

Moral for the Day: Always cut handles on plastic bags when you bin them!

Birds ringed:
Herring Gull - 2