Mediterranean gull EW31770 sets a new longevity record

On Saturday I reported seeing a ringed Mediterranean gull at Pennington Flash. By taking a few photos of the ring from different angles I was able to get the number which I sent off to the BTO. Turns out it was ringed at Belmont reservoir, Lancashire on 23/06/2007 by the late DJ Sowter, an amazing 6797 days ago or, 18 years 7 months and 9 days!

That's impressive enough, but amazingly this makes it nearly 5 months older than the previous oldest known Med Gull in the UK from a ringing recovery, and of course at the time of writing, the bird is still very much alive and continuing to set new records.

I've also received further information that the bird was the only young to hatch out of a clutch of three and was not large enough to be colour-ringed at the time, hence the metal ring only.

Mediterranean Gull EW31770
 as a chick in 2007.
Photo © Steve Martin. 

Remarkably this is the same bird as a nestling, being held by the late Roy Rhodes, prior to to being ringed by Dave Sowter in 2007.

It just shows how worthwhile it is to read these rings.

18 years 7 months and 9 days isn't actually that old in comparison to other gulls of a similar size. This taken from the BTO website, note that they haven't updated the Mediterranean gull details yet.