Blast From The Past Finds - Ring-Billed Gull

A strange post I have been meaning to write for some time.

Strange, as for those of us of a certain age, we have seen Ring-Billed Gull go from a mere scarcity, which you could expect to see (if not find your own) at any number of locations around the entire Irish coastline, to a pretty obvious rarity, only reliable at a handful of locations concerning long lived adults, and with fresh first winter birds now highly desirable.

This post therefore is as much as a lament as nostalgia. 

Voted to be an official rarity in Ireland by Irish birders in 2022, it was clear even then the downward trajectory their occurrence was taking. 

My visits home these days are marked by the deliberate decision to visit one of the long stayers (usually the bird at Blackrock, Louth).

Tallying up my past records of this species, I have found them in 12 counties (Louth, Meath, Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, Cork, Kerry, Clare, Galway, Mayo, Sligo, and Donegal.) and a humble estimate of probably about 50+ individual birds over 20 years. 

Their rarity now, makes me somewhat wish I had taken a few more record shots of individuals over the years, but of course, a distant RBG in the middle of Ballycotton lake doesn't seem so important in the noughties as it might today.

Think ye now, of all those once scarce, now gone rare Ring-Billed, Red-Necked Grebe, Black-Necked Grebe etc whose occurrences are now lost to time, with archives gone, no local reports operational and an Incompetent national body more concerned with deleting the tweets of their mis-identifications than accurately recording things. 😢

My favorite shot of Ring-Billed Gull ever.

Ring-Billed Gull, 1st winter - Kinsale

Ring-Billed Gull, 1st winter - Bantry. On the same day I found an adult also. There was a time when finding multiples was not the stuff of dreams.

It's nice when they're tame.

Who knows, maybe someday we will see some massive influx of these into western Europe which will put them back into the scarce category, but for now it doesn't seem that way.

That said...they are not so rare that with a smidgeen of effort you couldn't find one of your own. It may well be the case soon enough that the mark of a permadude is not having RBG on your finds list. 😂