When is a black headed gull, not a Black-headed Gull? When its a Schwarzkopfmöwe of course!

Or a mediterranean gull to you and I. Not that much of a revelation really (well it probably is if you don't know any German bird names) seeing as the black-headed gulls we all know and love at the Lincolnshire Wash Reserves have brown heads so aren't truly black headed at all. So why mention it then? Well it's all in the name.

Mediterranean Gull (AHTJ) - taken on date of ringing May 23 2009 by Simon Hinrichs

Last week  I reported an adult mediterranean gull, like the ones in the picture below, seen at dusk bearing a green ring and white coding AHTJ promising to let you know details when we know them. Well the circle can now be completed. This morning I recieved information from the project in Germany where this bird was rung. If you would like to know the movements of this individual I hatched a cunning plan and popped the sightings on one of those new fangled Googly Map type things. I haven't done it before so if it works (map found here) feel free to cheer me up and tell me :)

In summary the bird was caught as an adult in May 2009, seen in Lancashire in the autumn of that year, went AWOL for 2 years before turning up in the same-ish spot in August 2011. It then went missing again and last Wednesday was the first time it's been seen since then.

Mediterranean gulls - Neil Smith

For more information on mediterranean gulls and their movements have a wee read here and to finally put you out of your misery as to the title of this blog post.... the scientific name for mediterranean gull is Larus (the genus for many of the larger gulls) melanocephalus (which derives from the Greek for 'black headed'). Feel free to keep that little nugget of information for use at this Thursday's pub quiz or the next time you get to the final of WWTBAM.