Colour - ringed Mediterranean Gulls in Scotland

Introduction No other European gull has shown such a dramatic and rapid change of distribution in the last decades as the Mediterranean Gull Larus melanocephalus. Whereas in the 1940s breeding locations were restricted to coastal areas of the Black Sea in the Ukraine, Mediterranean Gulls can now be found nesting in many places scattered over Europe, in locations as near to Scotland as the Netherlands and the south of England (Hagemeijer & Blair 1997). It is a migratory bird, and the wintering areas of the Mediterranean Gull have similarly expanded, and for at least some regions in Scotland, it is nowadays regarded a regular winter visitor.