An adult female Lesser Black-backed Gull
(Baltic Gull) Larus fuscus fuscus was
ringed earlier this year in Umea, Sweden at her breeding
habitat, an archipelago with brackish water outside the Ume River Delta
"Holmsunds skärgård". She was fitted with a satellite transmitter to record her movements and
named Laura. The route Laura has used is shown on the map below and until now she
has visited (or passed) the following countries outside Sweden: Finland,
Latvia, Lithuania, Russia (Kaliningrad), Poland, Estonia, (Belarus), (Ukraine),
(Moldovia), Turkey, (Cyprus), Israel and Saudi Arabia. She passed the Turkish
mountains at 1590 metres above sea level and her highest speed has been 94 kilometres
per hour. She passed through Europe in two days with only one stop over at the
Black Sea coast of Turkey. Laura took just a short rest after reaching the Red
Sea coast and continued her flight along the western coast of Saudi Arabia passing
Jeddah before heading on to Jizan. Laura arrived
in Jizan Province (Al Sehi) on 21 September and has remained in the same
location since indicating this may be her wintering ground? Many Baltic Gulls
winter in this area and it will be interesting to see her movements.
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| Laura's Route |
.jpg) |
| Baltic Gull - Photo curtesy of Rob Tovey |
Help is needed by the ringing team to contact some local
people from Jizan, and hopefully a photographer who can take a picture of her
or the flock she joins. The point of the project to connect people who are
inspired by birds. If you can help with this matter please contact me (see details
under Contact Me Tab at top of this page). I would like to thank Per Hansson for informing me of this bird and its location.