Species: Lesser Black-backed Gull
In 2019 we began tracking Lesser Black-backed gulls on Forteiland IJmuiden. Approximately 1100 pairs of Lesser Black-backed gulls and 70 pairs of Herring gulls breed on the island. The breeding colony has been monitored since 2008 by a team of volunteers. The current team members are Fred Cottaar, Jose Verbeek and Maarten van Kleinwee. In collaboration with PBN, part of the island is blocked off from pedestrians during the breeding season to let gulls breed undisturbed on this unique location in the busy harbour of IJmuiden.
The tracking study is part of an ongoing collaboration between UvA (Dr. Judy Shamoun-Baranes) and the NIOZ (Dr. Kees Camphuysen). The study is being conducted within the project “Interactions between birds and offshore wind farms: drivers, consequences and tools for mitigation” funded by NWO Applied and Engineering Sciences Open Technology Programme, Rijkswaterstaat and Gemini windpark. The tracking study will provide complementary information on the movement patterns of gulls breeding along the North Sea coast, with similar objectives to the studies conducted on Texel and Schiermonnikoog. The main aim is to identify intrinsic and external drivers of movement from fine scale flight behaviour to seasonal migrations. While adult gulls from other colonies have been tracked since 2008, little is still known about the daily movements and flight behaviour of juveniles and how this differs from adults. This study will contribute to our knowledge on how juvenile birds develop their foraging and migration strategies and how their flight behaviour differs from adults.
Within the scope of the project we are especially interested in fine scale flight behaviour at sea. Forteiland is particularly interesting in this respect as it is relatively close to several wind parks in the North Sea. Enabled by the design of the tracking system, the UvA-BiTS system will automatically switch to high resolution measurements over the North Sea, measuring speed, altitude, location and tri-axial acceleration to identify behaviour, every 3 seconds.
If you are following birds on the website or in the field, here are the codes for birds with active trackers in 2021 (adults):
| Color ring | Logger number |
| 5469 | YDAS |
| 5557 | YDAU |
| 5576 | YDAV |
| 5579 | YCVN |
| 5654 | SAAC |
| 5861 | YBKW |
| 5963 | YAVL |
| 5964 | YDAZ |
| 5965 | YAVH |
| 5971 | YDBB |
| 5977 | YDBD |
| 5979 | YDBH |
| 5983 | YDBJ |
| 5609 | YCNR |
| 5615 | YCKU |
| 5630 | YDHK |
| 5646 | YDHM |
| 5665 | YDHN |
| 5666 | YDHP |
| 5715 | YDHL |
| 5717 | YDHS |
| 5722 | YDHT |
| 5931 | YDHR |
Contact persons, funders and participants
Kees Camphuysen kees.camphuysen@nioz.nl Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut voor Onderzoek der Zee / Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ)
Judy Shamoun-Baranes shamoun@uva.nl University of Amsterdam Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics / Instituut voor Biodiversiteit en Ecosysteem Dynamica (IBED)
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Netherlands Applied and Engineering Sciences (NWO)
References
1BWPi 2004. The birds of the western Palearctic interactive. DVD Birdguides, Shrewsbury.
2Camphuysen C.J. 1995. Herring Gull Larus argentatus and Lesser Black-backed Gulls Larus fuscus feeding at fishing vessels in the breeding season: competitive scavenging versus efficient flying. Ardea 83(2): 365-380.
3Camphuysen C.J., Calvo B., Durinck J., Ensor K., Follestad A., Furness R.W., Garthe S., Leaper G., Skov H., Tasker M.L. & Winter C.J.N. 1995. Consumption of discards by seabirds in the North Sea. Final report to the European Comm., study contr. BIOECO/93/10, NIOZ-Report 1995-5, Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Texel, 202+LVIIIpp.
4Camphuysen C.J., D.C. Camphuijsen & T.M. van Spanje 2006. Het voedsel van de Kleine Mantelmeeuwen van het Wormer- en Jisperveld. Limosa 78: 145-154.
5Camphuysen C.J., J. van Dijk, H. Witte & N. Spaans 2008. De voedselkeuze van Kleine Mantelmeeuwen en Zilvermeeuwen en andere indicaties die aanwijzingen geven over het ruimtegebruik van deze vogelsoorten in de Noord-Hollandse kustwateren. NIOZ Rapport 2008-12, Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut voor Zeeonderzoek, Texel, 69pp.