Caspian Gull Yellow P:OSR

In yesterday's post I published photos of the colour-ringed Caspian Gull that I found on the Axe Estuary earlier that day, it was bearing a yellow ring with P:OSR inscribed...

As this photo suggests, a pleasantly easy read on the ring

 

As if often the case these days, I have had the history back on this bird in super quick time, thanks to an email from The Polish Bird Ringing Centre earlier today.

P:OSR was ringed as a chick on 30th May 2025 in the province of Zachodniopomorskie in north west Poland, in the province's capital which is called Szczecin.  And this particular gull was ringed on the roof of a large building at the ship yard here, where I presume it was one of many.  

Red X marks the spot!

 

So apparently I saw it 272 days after it was ringed, and 1238km from where it was ringed.  But I wasn't the first person who has seen it since ringing as it has been seen once before - also in the UK.

There's an entry on P:OSR's data sheet for Sheffield on 1st September 2025, where it was recorded just for one day. A great little piece of information on its own, but I was even happier to receive a Twitter message from Andy Deighton with this absolutely delightful photo attached...

It's a baby P:OSR! (c) Andy Deighton

  

I cannot thank David enough for sending this on to me. Really interesting to see exactly what it looked like it its younger months - a fine example of a juvenile Caspian Gull.  Incidentally David is well known in the gulling world as he found the Sheffield Audouin's Gull back in July 2018 - the most urban Audouin's recorded in the UK to date!

And for one final point of interest to complete this post, there's actually a BB paper on the rapid increase of roof nesting Caspian Gulls in Poland. Well worth a read HERE.

Hope you've found this as interesting to read as I have to write, and thanks again the bird ringers of Poland and to David!