Nederlandse Kleine Mantelmeeuwen Larus fuscus in Italië

A re-sighting in Italy in autumn 2009 of a Lesser Black-backed Gull colourringed at Vlieland (The Netherlands) in 2006 triggered the interest in cases of Dutch LBBGs seen in Italy. With 95% of all winter sightings south of 51°N in a narrow band to the SW of the ringing grounds (median direction of migration 207°, range 95% 188°-219°), including the west of Belgium and France, the entire Iberian peninsula and the west coasts of Morocco and Mauritania, the five colour-ringed LBBGs in Italy were clearly off limits (Fig. 1, Table 1). Colour-ring programmes have frequently demonstrated how site-faithful wintering LBBGs actually are, and the fact that three LBBGs in Italy have been seen in two or even three different winter seasons suggests that these birds did not necessarily travel too far east by accident, but as a general, albeit individual pattern. Four further sightings are highlighted, roughly in the same unusual direction as the Italian records: a young bird ringed at Texel in 2006 and observed from Dec 2006 to Jan 2007 in Annaba, Algeria (36°55’N, 07°47’E), a young bird from Vlissingen-Oost (Zeeland) and an adult female captured in Moerdijk were both also seen in Annaba in 2007. Finally, the most easterly sighting of a Dutch ringed LBBG thus far, another bird from Moerdijk was ringed in 2007 and observed in the salinas Sebkhet Al Mangoub near Zuwarah (32°54’N, 12°07’E) in Libia. The existence of an eastern (L.f. fuscus) and a western flyway (L.f. intermedius/graellsii) is briefly discussed. The Italian, Libian and Algerian sightings do not fit in these general flyways, but these birds should perhaps not be considered as vagrants sensu stricto. A single satellite tagged case from Denmark was found to migrate via France over the Balearic islands or Sardinia towards and from NE Algeria at least in five consecutive seasons. An increase in observer effort in the central Mediterranean could thus result in a larger number of colour-ring reports of LBBGs from these areas.