Back in August I observed a Black Headed Gull in the car park of Michael Wood Services wearing a silver split ring. I was able to take a good photo of the split ring and then report the number to the British Trust for Ornithology in an effort to find out about the history of the bird which turns out to be very interesting. It was ringed in 2001 as a 1 year old but even more interesting is that the bird was ringed in Finland, specifically at Kokkola in the Vaasa region. This is in fact 2012 Km from Michael woods Services, (but it did have 11 years to get there). Interesting that the Black headed Gulls that we see here in the UK have been hatched, or potentially would be more accurate to say, In such exotic locations. Also interesting that the bird was 11 years old and still wearing the ring (for it's entire life). I note that the UK's breeding population of Black Headed Gulls is swelled by 1.5 million birds in the winter, obviously birds from colder northern climates travelling to a warmer British winter!

Observant readers of my blog will see that I have slipped down the rankings of the birding top 1000 in the last few days? This is due to a glitch when the code that records visitors to my site needed updating. This has now been done and we are climbing back up the table back to my original and rightful spot.!!!!!!