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calybites.bsky.social
Calybites
@calybites.bsky.social
Interested in birds, butterflies, moths and plants. Helping to monitor the movements of migrating Black-headed Gulls 😀
Merseyside Ringing Group’s Black 2440, the 1cy Black-headed Gull from Shotton Steel Works, Flintshire is still at Yeadon Tarn, Leeds, where it has resided for more than a month.
Hopefully it will stay here for the winter.

#GullsOfShotton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
#GullsOfYeadon #2440 #VC64
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
November 8, 2025 at 1:21 PM
The parasitised Luffia lapidella larva hasn’t moved for three days and has fixed itself to the side of the Perspex container.
It will be interesting to see what emerges!
#Psychidae
November 4, 2025 at 3:33 PM
BHG 247J has always been faithful to Wharfemeadows Park, Otley, but has now started to visit Yeadon Tarn.

#GullsOfOtley #GullsOfYeadon
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs
November 4, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Black-headed Gull 2E96 is back in Roundhay Park, Leeds, after yet another trip to Germany! 🇩🇪
Every year, since colour-ringing in 2022, it has spent Spring and Summer at Eider-Sperrwerk, near Vollerwiek, Schleswig-Holstein 🇩🇪
#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfRoundhay
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs #VC64
November 3, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Reposted by Calybites
I've been updating our collaborative #CootStudy database. I started the study 17 years ago & thanks to a network of bird ringers across Britain & Ireland we've now colour-marked 4,400 Coot & received over 13,000 re-sightings. Pretty cool for a bird you hardly see in flight! #Ornithology #BirdRinging
November 2, 2025 at 4:45 PM
News from Dean Trenam today.
Black-headed Gull 231C is on the move again. 😀 🇳🇱
I wonder if he will go back to Center Parcs?
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
@harrykuipers.bsky.social @nuttytussock.bsky.social
November 2, 2025 at 2:37 PM
At Hollins Hall you know that it’s Autumn when the Feathered Thorn turns up at the window. 🍂

#Colotois #pennaria #VC64
October 31, 2025 at 3:29 PM
The parasitised Luffia lapidella larva, which should have metamorphosed in the summer has made it to Halloween.🎃
It stopped feeding last week and wandered away from the lichen substrate provided for it.
🧙
This Larva Aeterna seems to be the last of the Baildon Luffia colony 😕
#Psychidae #VC64
October 31, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Nothing too exciting amongst the many Black-headed Gulls in Shibden Park, Halifax today but BHG 233K did apparently visit Rodley Nature Reserve last winter.

#GullOfTheDay
#GullsOfHalifax #Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs
October 30, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Calybites
Welcome amelioration in the weather allowed for fuller ringing activities at the Bill today. 43 birds trapped; 17 of the new birds were Redpolls and the one control was another Redpoll that had first been ringed at Thorpe Marsh, South Yorkshire, on 26th September - nice!
October 29, 2025 at 6:11 PM
The 1cy Black-headed Gull ringed as a nestling in June by Merseyside Ringing Group at Shotton Steel Works, Flintshire is still at Yeadon Tarn, Leeds where it has resided for at least three weeks.

#GullsOfShotton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
#GullsOfYeadon #2440 #VC64
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
October 29, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Black-headed Gull 239J is back at Yeadon Tarn. 😀
There were no summer sightings this year but in 2024 it visited Nordjylland, Denmark, so it is probably safe to assume that it has been there again.
🇩🇰 BHGs are creatures of habit! 🇩🇰

#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfYeadon #Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs
October 27, 2025 at 1:47 PM
The Black-headed Gull TCML seen in Shibden Park, Halifax, on 5th September 2025 was ringed (as an adult) in Poland on 28 June. 🇵🇱
#GullsOfHalifax
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
October 22, 2025 at 1:20 PM
One of the Black-headed Gulls at Yeadon Tarn has a metal leg ring .
EZ91809 was ringed as a nestling in 2021 on Dallow Moor, Nidderdale, North Yorkshire. 🇬🇧
#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfYeadon #Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
October 17, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Down but not out! The parasitised Luffia lapidella larva is not dead after all. After five days of inactivity it has “done a Lazarus” and resumed feeding on lichen.
This is a great example of a larva aeterna and it might be some time before the culprit reveals itself.
#Psychidae #VC64 #lapidella
October 16, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls are continuing to return to Otley in dribs and drabs with three new ones this week.
Many will still be “on holiday” in the countries surrounding the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.
🇸🇪 🇳🇴 🇫🇮 🇩🇰 🇱🇻 🇵🇱 🇧🇾 🇩🇪 🇳🇱 🇧🇪
Please send them back now! 😀

#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs
October 15, 2025 at 12:11 PM
The parasitised Luffia lapidella larva hasn’t moved since Friday 10th October.
Presumably the moth caterpillar has now been killed by the parasitoid larva and we now have to wait until the culprit emerges as an adult wasp.
#Baildon #VC64 #Psychidae
October 13, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Peter Coffey (Merseyside Ringing Group) says 2440 is unusual for its direction of travel (NE). The only other Shotton-born BHG moving in a NE direction was one to Ashworth Moor, Rochdale.

Most go to Ireland, mainly east coast and Tralee/Killarney 🇮🇪 but occasionally France (Brittany, Finistere). 🇫🇷
October 11, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by 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
October 8, 2025 at 4:44 PM
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
October 8, 2025 at 4:44 PM
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
October 8, 2025 at 3:03 PM
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 😀
October 8, 2025 at 1:04 PM
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
October 6, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Calybites
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
October 5, 2025 at 3:11 PM
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
October 5, 2025 at 3:45 PM