MEDITERRANEAN GULL

 

The largest number of this species recorded together in the county is of 7 individuals and was recorded at Shell NR during the breeding season in 2004.

 

The first record of Mediterranean Gull in Greater Manchester was not until 1979, when an adult bird was recorded at Cheadle Hulme on the 23rd and 24th January, full details of the this record can be found here. The second record took another three years to come along when an immature was found at Rumworth on the 21st October 1982.

The first county breeding attempt took place in 2001 at Shell NR although the nest failed. The county's first successful breeding was in 2003 at the latter location when 2 of 3 chicks fledged.

A Mediterranean Gull at Astley Moss East Pools on the 17th March 2005 was seen displaying to a leucistic Black-headed Gull!

A second-winter individual at Audenshaw Reservoirs on the 4th February 1995 was considered to be a Mediterranean Gull x Black-headed Gull hybrid.

Green ringed birds have been observed in the county of a few occasions and they are:

2001 Shell NR   One breeding adult was the same as the green ringed individual in 2002
2002 Pennington Flash 21st Mar A green ringed individual, also seen at Shell NR, had been ringed at the nest in Le Platier d'Oye Plage, Pas de Calais, France on 15th Jun 2000. The same bird was also seen at Cohb, Ireland in Jan 2001 and Woolston Eyes, Cheshire
2004 Shell NR May 2, both 2nd summer birds, had green Darvic rings and had had been ringed as a chicks at Zandvlietsluis, near Antwerp in Belgium on the 20th May 2002. One of these birds was later seen at Dungeness, Kent from the 28th Jun-4th Jul 2004.