Calybites
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calybites.bsky.social
Calybites
@calybites.bsky.social
70 followers 71 following 96 posts
Interested in birds, butterflies, moths and plants. Helping to monitor the movements of migrating Black-headed Gulls 😀
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One of the Black-headed Gulls at Yeadon Tarn has a metal leg ring .
EZ91809 was ringed as a nestling in 2021 on Dallow Moor, Nidderdale, North Yorkshire. 🇬🇧
#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfYeadon #Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
Down but not out! The parasitised Luffia lapidella larva is not dead after all. After five days of inactivity it has “done a Lazarus” and resumed feeding on lichen.
This is a great example of a larva aeterna and it might be some time before the culprit reveals itself.
#Psychidae #VC64 #lapidella
Colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls are continuing to return to Otley in dribs and drabs with three new ones this week.
Many will still be “on holiday” in the countries surrounding the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.
🇸🇪 🇳🇴 🇫🇮 🇩🇰 🇱🇻 🇵🇱 🇧🇾 🇩🇪 🇳🇱 🇧🇪
Please send them back now! 😀

#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs
The parasitised Luffia lapidella larva hasn’t moved since Friday 10th October.
Presumably the moth caterpillar has now been killed by the parasitoid larva and we now have to wait until the culprit emerges as an adult wasp.
#Baildon #VC64 #Psychidae
Can I blame #StormAmy for the Shotton-born BHG 2440 that turned up at Yeadon Tarn this week? 😀
Peter Coffey (Merseyside Ringing Group) says 2440 is unusual for its direction of travel (NE). The only other Shotton-born BHG moving in a NE direction was one to Ashworth Moor, Rochdale.

Most go to Ireland, mainly east coast and Tralee/Killarney 🇮🇪 but occasionally France (Brittany, Finistere). 🇫🇷
Reposted by Calybites
BTO wins! 🏆
As suspected the Yeadon Tarn colour-ringed 1 cy Black-headed Gull is from the old steel works in Flintshire 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
I wonder how often the Shotton gulls fly North East? Does anybody in the Merseyside Ringing Group know?

#GullOfTheWeek #GullsOfYeadon
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
BTO wins! 🏆
As suspected the Yeadon Tarn colour-ringed 1 cy Black-headed Gull is from the old steel works in Flintshire 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
I wonder how often the Shotton gulls fly North East? Does anybody in the Merseyside Ringing Group know?

#GullOfTheWeek #GullsOfYeadon
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
Speckled Wood caterpillars often appear in the wild grasses that I allow to grow in a sheltered west-facing position on top of our old coal bunker. It looks a bit messy but the butterflies seem to like it!
The grass is mostly cock’s-foot I think 🤔
#CaterpilarOfTheDay
#Parage #Dactylis #VC64
The colour-ringed 1cy BHG is still at Yeadon Tarn and I have now managed to get the number on the metal ring and reported it to the BTO 😀
Black-headed Gull 2440 was at Yeadon Tarn, Leeds, today.
It was probably ringed by the Merseyside Ringing Group and further details will hopefully follow.
Maybe blown in this direction by Storm Amy? 🤔
I have emailed Peter Coffey.

#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfYeadon
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus #StormAmy
Reposted by Calybites
Two colour ringed Black-headed Gulls from Norway at Redcar this morning, JMH5 ringed on 10.08.2019 at Frognerkilen, Oslo and J3103 ringed on 10.06.2024 at Langøen, Råde, Østfold. @teesbirds.bsky.social @nybirdnews.bsky.social @northyorksbirds.bsky.social
Poinsettia Project 2025
Time to turn the leaves red! 🍂

Euphorbia pulcherrima is a commercially important flowering plant species of the diverse spurge family Euphorbiaceae. Indigenous to Mexico and Central America.

#Poinsettia #Euphorbiaceae
The presumably parasitised Luffia lapidella larva (collected from a Baildon sycamore trunk) is still feeding on the Lecanora lichen. It is now well into its second Autumn.
Hopefully an interesting parasitoid wasp will emerge from this larva aeterna in a few weeks.
#Psychidae #ferchaultella #VC64
Welcome back Black-headed Gull 228K who has finally returned to Shibden Park, Halifax, after being spotted in Sweden LAST year then going AWOL for almost 18 months!
🇸🇪 🇸🇪 🇸🇪

#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfHalifax #Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs
Reposted by Calybites
Once again, the combination of a quiet area and the abundance of Great Green Grasshopers in Groningen, NL has proven crucial for the world's northernmost Gull-billed Tern population. Photos: Adult L01 feeding young T35 a grasshopper and 24 Gull-billed Terns in flight. (5/5)
Still trying to get ringing information from Poland 🇵🇱
If nothing comes back by next weekend does anybody know of any ringers in Poland that might be involved?
@kanebrides.bsky.social @bh-wlbirding.bsky.social @harrykuipers.bsky.social
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
Black-headed Gulls in Roundhay Park, Leeds, today included visitors from Riga, Latvia 🇱🇻 and St Petersburg, Russia 🇷🇺
Both are would be contenders for “Gull of the day”
#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfRoundhay
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs #235J #236J #VC64
Hopefully an interesting parasitoid will emerge from this larva aeterna.
If it is a Diadegma it will likely appear in October. Males tend to emerge in the first third of Oct whilst females emerge in the second third (before the 20th).
#Ichneumonidae
#Campopleginae #Diadegma
@gavinbroad.bsky.social
This Luffia lapidella larva was found on 14 Jun grazing on a Lecanora lichen.
Found again on 15 Aug it has been reared in captivity since.
L. lapidella is usually in the adult stage by July; increased larval longevity suggests hijacking by a parasitoid.
This is now an example of a “larva aeterna”.
Black-headed Gull “Joe 90” was back in Shibden Park, Halifax, yesterday after appearing at The National Theatre in Oslo in April.
He has an impressive flight log and this will be his third winter in Halifax.

#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfHalifax #J0190 🇳🇴
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
Black-headed Gull 236K is back in Shibden Park, Halifax, after an excursion to Nosterfield Nature Reserve in North Yorkshire
Presumably they must breed there?
#GullOfTheDay #GullsOfHalifax
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs
A Black Swan has turned up on the River Wharfe at Otley 😀

#Cygnus #atratus #VC64
Over the last few years the amount of light-green lichen on the Baildon Luffia’s sycamore has decreased dramatically. This seems to be the last remaining larva but hopefully there may be others higher up the tree and therefore out of sight.
#VC64 #Luffia #lapidella #Psychidae