Bonaparte's Gull returns to Kent for twelfth year

A vagrant Bonaparte's Gull has returned to Oare Marshes in Kent for the twelfth summer in a row.

The bird was reported on The Swale, which is adjacent to the Kent Wildlife Trust reserve, during the morning of 21 June. The return marked the twelfth consecutive year that the gull has spent the summer months at Oare Marshes.

First found as a first-summer on 22 May 2013, the gull usually arrives in early July and departs in late August or early September. Aside in 2013, when it was first found, it has arrived in July every year bar 2015, 2018 and 2020. So, the June arrival this year is on the early side.

The Bonaparte's Gull pictured at Oare Marshes in July 2020 (Terry Laws).

American visitor to Kent

Last year, 2023, the bird was present from 6 July until 6 September.

A North American species, Bonaparte's Gull is a rare vagrant to western Europe. In Britain, the number of records has been increasing, however, with at least 11 different individuals recorded in 2023.

It was formerly an extreme rarity on this side of the Atlantic – there were only around 30 records by the early 1980s. Nowadays, the rarity shroud has been lifted, no doubt aided by increased ID awareness and also helped by several long-staying or returning birds, including the Kent individual.

In 2017, a pair bred in Iceland – the first time Bonaparte's Gull has nested in the Western Palearctic.

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