It was an ordinary Monday afternoon in Bratislava center. Only plans were to join my friends in wintering Peregrine Falcons count. I was slowly moving towards Most SNP bridge where was my observation point. In the winter several flocks of Black-headed Gulls (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) use to occupy pontoons on Danube. Sometimes accompanied by few Common Gulls (Larus canus). In this case it was just monotonous roosting flock of Black-headed Gulls in winter plumage.
Despite this fact I started to check their legs for rings. Surprisingly I found one in a short period of time. It was an adult with metallic ring on its left leg and white darvic ring with black code on the right leg. It took me a while, but I read the code succesfully - Z41A.
I was already leaving when I spotted another gull with ring. It was really close. I took few record shots and tried to solve the metallic ring as well. The result was interesting. The rings were from Poland as I was able to read "Gdańsk", which is the name of city on the Baltic coast.
In this case it was a juvenile Black-headed Gull with white darvic ring T26L on the right leg.
I spent the rest time of the afternoon searching for Peregrines. I found one, but it wasn't on my point so it was "officially" counted by my colleague. Altogether we counted two Peregrine Falcons in Bratislava.
Back to the gulls. When I came home I immediately checked the
EURING website for the schemes to send reports about my observations. In few days I received replies.
Z41A was ringed year ago (January 20, 2014) as an adult (3+ years) on River Vltava in the center of Prague, Czech Republic. Interesting fact was that just few days ago (January 8, 2015) this gull was still in Prague. It covered at least 300 km in following days.
T26L was ringed just this autumn (October 1, 2014) as a juvenile in Gdańsk, Poland. Direct distance between Gdańsk and Bratislava is 700 km. It is amazing that these young birds are capable of such long journeys.
These nice observations just gave me an acknowledgment, that it's worth of it to have a closer look even on the common birds. Ringed birds are full of surprises, big stories and fantastic natural journeys.
