One of the highlights at the sand suppletion works at Noordwijk aan Zee last week (the top highlight being this second-calendar year Baltic Gull) was a second-calendar year Scandinavian Herring Gull Larus argentatus argentatus with Russian color ring Yellow KW52.
Second-calendar year Scandinavian Herring Gull Yellow KW52. Noordwijk aan Zee, The Netherlands, 23 June 2013.
Second-calendar year Scandinavian Herring Gull Yellow KW52. Noordwijk aan Zee, The Netherlands, 23 June 2013. Note the moult in the inner greater coverts and the inner primaries.
Second-calendar year Scandinavian Herring Gull Yellow KW52. Noordwijk aan Zee, The Netherlands, 23 June 2013.
The exact ringing details are still unknown, but it is very likely that it was ringed as a juvenile last year in the Kandalakshsky Nature Reserve in the Murmansk Province of northern Russia, a distance of some 2,200 km from where I saw it.
The location where KW52 was ringed in Russia and where it was seen in The Netherlands.
This is only my third observation of a ringed Scandinavian Herring Gull (incidentally all from that region): the first one was second-calendar year White KY61 in 2009 and the second one third-calendar year White KH89 in 2011.
References
More photos of this individual can be seen on Gull Research.
Gulls to the Horizon 