Black-legged Kittiwake, Irish Sea, Cumbria, 25th Aug 2009 - Photo: Paul DerbyshireWhilst on a boat 6 miles off Walney Island, a colour ringed adult Kittiwake landed briefly. The reply received from the ringer, Jean-Yves Monnat, is very interesting and informative:
“That bird, a male, is one of "mine", indeed. It bred in 2009 at Pointe du Raz colony (Plogoff, Finistère, France, 48°02N 04°43W) on the same nest where it was first caught as a breeding adult in 1999. It bred, or tried do do so, every year on the same place since, and raised 13 chicks to independence from 1999 to 2009, which is quite a good performance.
Nevertheless, he had obviously some individual problems by the end of the season. Although we check every nest daily at fledging time, we failed to see it on it's nest from 24/07/2009 onwards, a very unusual situation, as it's chick first fledged on 03/08/2009 and left the nest (and the area) for good on 13/08/2009.
We saw it once however, but in an apparently poor condition on 11/08/2009, alone on a club: dirty (oil ?), wings hanging down, sleepy for a good while... So, I'm happy to know that he survived yet for a fortnight at least and was strong enough to travel from Brittany to Cumbria.”
