Pictures: Teus Luijendijk

6 May 2006, de Blikken, Groede Ze

6 May 2006, de Blikken, Groede Ze

An amazing day, when at least 6 Slender-billed Gulls were discovered in different places in The Netherlands. Two were found in the wetland called 'de Blikken', quite near the famous migration watchpoint at Breskens. Unexpectedly, migration was very poor this day (as I witnessed with some friends), so we found ourselves underway to 'de Blikken', when I was phoned by a friend who told me he was looking at what he supposed was a Slender-billed Gull, a new species for the country! No need to say that our speed was somewhat increased to get there!
When we arrived at the spot a few minutes later, the sight was incredible: two beautiful adult Slender-billed Gulls foraging on the water near a Black-headed Gull colony!
One of the birds was found to be ringed, an aluminum ring on the left leg and a pale green one on the other. On the last picture shown here an inscription on the latter is visible, but it is uncertain what the exact code was. Unfortunately the distance to the birds was too large and the light too hazy.