by Francisco Javier García Vargas

 

On 26/I I could observe a beautiful adult Glaucous Gull at Arrecife. The bird was roosting into a big flock of Yellow-legged and Lesser Black-backed Gulls on a reef  at about 200 meters from where I was. The distance, the strong wind and my clumsiness with digiscoping (it´s not made for me!!!) made me only get these horrific pics. I´m going to try to relocate this superb bird to take better photos of it. It is a first for our personal list of birds observed in Lanzarote. There is only a previous record (not submitted) of Glaucous Gull at Lanzarote, so it will be (if accepted) the second record for the island.

Very close to the Glaucous Gull, I could detect an adult Herring Gull, a vagrant to the Canary Islands with only a few records. This is another first for our list and the first record for Lanzarote too.

 

JANUARY 2009: A GOOD MONTH FOR GULLS IN LANZAROTE

by Francisco Javier García Vargas and Juan Sagardía Pradera

 

Besides the Glaucous and the Herring Gulls, some interesting observations on gulls have been made at Lanzarote on January 2009.

The Mediterranean Gulls (at least 5 birds) have been all winter at Arrecife. 2 birds are ringed, one with a red ring (we could not read it yet) and the other with a green ring with the white chapters "1X5". This is the history of the bird:

1X5               Left      pullus       Paris                 FS63212          03/07/2008  Barbâtre, Polder de Sebastopol, Vendée, FRANCE  46,56N 2,09W

ringed by team Matthieu Vaslin

vv     17/01/2009            1X5  Arrecife, Lanzarote Canary Islands, SPAIN  28,57N 13,33W                                                           Sagardia Pradera, Juan

On 09/I, a first-winter Ring-billed Gull was seen at Arrecife (F. J. García Vargas) and relocated there on 17/I by Juan Sagardía Pradera. This is only our second record of this species in Lanzarote. Details and pics of the first record can be seen here.

 

Finally, a spectacular flock of 9 Audouin´s Gulls was detected at Puerto del Carmen on 14/I. The birds have been moving around the east coast and for example, 2 birds were at Puerto del Carmen and 7 birds were seen at Arrecife few minutes later on 18/I.

 

 

Glaucous Gull. Arrecife. Photo: F. J. García Vargas

 

Glaucous Gull. Arrecife. Photo: F. J. García Vargas

 

 Glaucous Gull. Arrecife. Photo: F. J. García Vargas

 

Glaucous Gull. Arrecife. Photo: F. J. García Vargas

 

 Glaucous Gull. Arrecife. Photo: F. J. García Vargas

 

Glaucous Gull. Arrecife. Photo: F. J. García Vargas

 

Herring Gull (with Glaucous Gull and Yellow-legged Gull). Arrecife. Photo: F. J. García Vargas

 

Mediterranean Gull. Arrecife. Photo: J. Sagardía

 

 Mediterranean Gull. Arrecife. Photo: F. J. García Vargas

 

Audouin´s Gull. Puerto del Carmen. Photo: F. J. García Vargas

 

 Audouin´s Gull. Puerto del Carmen. Photo: F. J. García Vargas

 

Audouin´s Gull. Puerto del Carmen. Photo: F. J. García Vargas

 

 Audouin´s Gull. Puerto del Carmen. Photo: J. Sagardía

 

Audouin´s Gull. Arrecife. Photo: J. Sagardía

 

Ring-billed Gull. Arrecife. Photo: F. J. García Vargas