Caspian Gulls in the west of Suffolk: Dawn Balmer, Peter Wilson

Dawn E. Balmer and Peter M. Wilson

The year 2019 produced apparently unprecedented numbers of Caspian Gulls in West Suffolk with our efforts culminating in up to 131 individual birds sighted. The Lackford Lakes gull roost contained larger than usual numbers (up to 21 different individuals) in January, peaking at ten on February 8th, with the last birds noted, February 16th. In the second winter period seven birds were noted at Lackford, including six on November 30th. Occasional visits to Tuddenham pig fields saw a total of 12 individuals between January 1st and February 21st.

Late winter/early spring saw 13 birds appear in the Mickle Mere gull roost, February 19th – April 12th. As ever, Livermere Lake and adjacent pig fields produced an impressive haul with as many as 81 individuals documented. The gull roost on Livermere Lake, particularly through the summer months, proved highly productive indeed! A dip in sightings was evident in late spring and the last two months of the year. The latter was almost certainly due to both a drop in numbers of gulls and the use of pig fields which were largely out of view.

Although a real effort was made to identify individual birds, it seems possible or likely, that a margin of error crept in, particularly with regard to documenting gulls using the Livermere Lake roost.

Subtracting 10% of the number of individuals identified in the Livermere Lake and pig fields would give a revised total of 73 individuals. As usual birds in their first year were by far the most prevalent with 54% of birds categorised as such. The age ratio of other ages was 25% secondyear, 10% third-year and 11% fourth-calendar-year and older (‘adult types’).

Maximum counts were as follows: 9 Lackford Lakes 27/01/2019 6 Livermere pig fields 08/02/2019 10 Lackford Lakes 08/02/2019 5 Mickle Mere 20/02/2019 5 Livermere Lake 14/04/2019 5 Livermere Lake 18/07/2019 8 Livermere Lake 10/08/2019 8 Livermere Lake 04/10/2019

Number

20 10 0

J F M A M J J A S O N D

Month

Graph to show the number of identified Caspian Gulls in each month of 2019. It is quite possible that there were birds counted in more than one month.

The whole article with photographs and details of all the individual birds can be accessed by emailing Dawn and Peter at – dawn.peter@btinternet.com