Ring-billed Gull

The photos of the Groomsport Ring-billed Gull below from Stephen Maxwell are superb and remind us how enigmatic Ring-billed Gull is. In NI it is a rare though regular visitor occurring at any time of the year. It is however hard to believe that the first NI record was only in 1981. The first GB record was in 1973 and in Ireland (Broad Lough, Wicklow) in 1979.

This species has been over-looked in the past owing to its similarity to Common Gull and surprisingly there is no record for County Fermanagh. The bird that regularly frequented Whitehouse Lagoon was last seen in spring 2008, amazingly 28 years after it was first seen!