Calybites

BTO wins! 🏆
As suspected the Yeadon Tarn colour-ringed 1 cy Black-headed Gull is from the old steel works in Flintshire 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
I wonder how often the Shotton gulls fly North East? Does anybody in the Merseyside Ringing Group know?

#GullOfTheWeek #GullsOfYeadon
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus

Speckled Wood caterpillars often appear in the wild grasses that I allow to grow in a sheltered west-facing position on top of our old coal bunker. It looks a bit messy but the butterflies seem to like it!
The grass is mostly cock’s-foot I think 🤔
#CaterpilarOfTheDay
#Parage #Dactylis #VC64

The colour-ringed 1cy BHG is still at Yeadon Tarn and I have now managed to get the number on the metal ring and reported it to the BTO 😀

Black-headed Gull 2440 was at Yeadon Tarn, Leeds, today.
It was probably ringed by the Merseyside Ringing Group and further details will hopefully follow.
Maybe blown in this direction by Storm Amy? 🤔
I have emailed Peter Coffey.

#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfYeadon
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus #StormAmy

Two colour ringed Black-headed Gulls from Norway at Redcar this morning, JMH5 ringed on 10.08.2019 at Frognerkilen, Oslo and J3103 ringed on 10.06.2024 at Langøen, Råde, Østfold. @teesbirds.bsky.social @nybirdnews.bsky.social @northyorksbirds.bsky.social

Poinsettia Project 2025
Time to turn the leaves red! 🍂

Euphorbia pulcherrima is a commercially important flowering plant species of the diverse spurge family Euphorbiaceae. Indigenous to Mexico and Central America.

#Poinsettia #Euphorbiaceae

The presumably parasitised Luffia lapidella larva (collected from a Baildon sycamore trunk) is still feeding on the Lecanora lichen. It is now well into its second Autumn.
Hopefully an interesting parasitoid wasp will emerge from this larva aeterna in a few weeks.
#Psychidae #ferchaultella #VC64

Welcome back Black-headed Gull 228K who has finally returned to Shibden Park, Halifax, after being spotted in Sweden LAST year then going AWOL for almost 18 months!
🇸🇪 🇸🇪 🇸🇪

#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfHalifax #Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs

Once again, the combination of a quiet area and the abundance of Great Green Grasshopers in Groningen, NL has proven crucial for the world's northernmost Gull-billed Tern population. Photos: Adult L01 feeding young T35 a grasshopper and 24 Gull-billed Terns in flight. (5/5)

Still trying to get ringing information from Poland 🇵🇱
If nothing comes back by next weekend does anybody know of any ringers in Poland that might be involved?
@kanebrides.bsky.social @bh-wlbirding.bsky.social @harrykuipers.bsky.social
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus

Red-necked Phalarope at #migfest @spurnbirdobs.bsky.social today. #phonescoping #kowa #ukbirds #yorkshirebirding #birds

Black-headed Gulls in Roundhay Park, Leeds, today included visitors from Riga, Latvia 🇱🇻 and St Petersburg, Russia 🇷🇺
Both are would be contenders for “Gull of the day”
#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfRoundhay
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs #235J #236J #VC64

Hopefully an interesting parasitoid will emerge from this larva aeterna.
If it is a Diadegma it will likely appear in October. Males tend to emerge in the first third of Oct whilst females emerge in the second third (before the 20th).
#Ichneumonidae
#Campopleginae #Diadegma
@gavinbroad.bsky.social

This Luffia lapidella larva was found on 14 Jun grazing on a Lecanora lichen.
Found again on 15 Aug it has been reared in captivity since.
L. lapidella is usually in the adult stage by July; increased larval longevity suggests hijacking by a parasitoid.
This is now an example of a “larva aeterna”.

Black-headed Gull “Joe 90” was back in Shibden Park, Halifax, yesterday after appearing at The National Theatre in Oslo in April.
He has an impressive flight log and this will be his third winter in Halifax.

#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfHalifax #J0190 🇳🇴
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus

Black-headed Gull 236K is back in Shibden Park, Halifax, after an excursion to Nosterfield Nature Reserve in North Yorkshire
Presumably they must breed there?
#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfHalifax
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs

A Black Swan has turned up on the River Wharfe at Otley 😀

#Cygnus #atratus #VC64

Over the last few years the amount of light-green lichen on the Baildon Luffia’s sycamore has decreased dramatically. This seems to be the last remaining larva but hopefully there may be others higher up the tree and therefore out of sight.
#VC64 #Luffia #lapidella #Psychidae

Hooray! I have found a solitary Luffia lapidella on the old sycamore at Hollins Hall, Baildon
#VC64 #Psychidae @doublekidney.bsky.social @andydnunn.bsky.social @eggboxenvy.bsky.social

Another stealth gull has arrived back in Otley today after a probable trip to Scandinavia. We know BHG 237H was seen in Norway in April 2024 but there are no sightings for this year’s breeding season yet.
#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfOtley
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs #VC64 🇳🇴

BHG 234H is back in Otley today having probably flown to Finland and back without being spotted!
We know it goes to Finland because it was recorded there in 2023 and these gulls are creatures of habit! 🇫🇮
#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfOtley
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs 🇫🇮

Norwegian bird BHG J52X was spotted in Otley today. It has been recorded in previous years but the green colour ring is now damaged and may not be readable for much longer!
#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfOtley #Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs #VC64

Hooray! 🎉
BHG 246J is safely back in Otley after another trip to Belarus! 🇧🇾

#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfOtley
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs #VC64

BHG 277K is back at Yeadon Tarn.
I feel like I have watched this one grow up! 😀
#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfYeadon
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs

Three colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls were seen at Yeadon Tarn this morning and all three had originally been ringed at Otley.
Still waiting for the more exciting continental travellers!
#GullsOfYeadon #Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs #GullOfTheDay #VC64

More gulls returning to Otley now but nothing too exciting yet.
Having said that, 299L did make it as far as Ilkley 🤣
#GullOfTheDay
#GullsOfOtley
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs

The first 2025 sighting of a rather scruffy Black-headed Gull 232J in Roundhay Park today.
No clues as to where it has been since December.
#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfRoundhay
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs

Hooray!
Otley’s favourite Black-headed Gull 235H is back! 🎉🥳
Possibly slightly bemused by the new footbridge but happily eating chips with 256J, 276J, 2E72 and 2E84
The boys are back in town!

#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfOtley
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs

“Salty” the 12 year old BHG is back in Guiseley McDonalds car-park 😀

EY37615 was ringed by Tees Ringing Group as a nestling, sex unknown on 21-Jun-2013 at Saltholme, near Teesmouth, Stockton-on-Tees, UK

#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfGuiseley
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus

Small Copper butterfly on the Otley flood alleviation meadow today.
At least three young Black-headed Gulls on the river.
#GullsOfOtley #OtleyButterflies
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs #VC64