Ring-billed Gull has been one of the more regular ‘rare’ gulls at Radipole. Its a North American species which appears in the UK most winters in varying numbers. Some birds return each winter to a specific site such as currently staying at Gosport on a boating lake. During the summer I can only imagine that they head back towards North America as we get very few summer records in the UK.
Last winter didn’t see any Ring-billed Gulls at Radipole and as this winter was progressing it looked like we could get a repeat of last year. But this morning local birder and gull enthusiast Dave Chown managed to locate one amongst several hundred Common Gull and Med Gulls. He has been spending a lot of time looking through the gulls this winter so all his hard work has finally paid off.
The bird has only so far been seen on the water so this is only photo I’ve managed so far, but in the past Ring-billed Gulls have been seen on the car park!
As you can see it’s not the most obvious of Gulls but you should be able to see that its got a slightly pale back and less white in the tertails which are the feathers just before the black primaries start. You can also why its called a Ring-billed Gull.