Abundant winter visitor and localised breeder

Status in winter

Black-headed Gull is the most abundant of the gulls found in the region. It is an abundant winter visitor and comprises 70% to 80% of the gulls at most roost sites. At the huge Draycote Water roost in Warwickshire the figure is probably higher still. Accurate counts from Draycote are lacking during recent years, the sheer numbers discouraging observers from attempting a count. During the 1990s and early 2000s, estimates were of the order of 25000, with a highest count of 50000 in 2005, while the count from BTO's Wintering Gull Roost Survey in January 1993 was 38500. Although this was the second-highest count from an inland site, such numbers are well down on estimates from earlier years e.g. 80000 in 1977 and up to 100000 in 1973. Although there has  been a decline since the peak numbers of the early 1970s, it is probable that some more recent counts are  under-estimates to some extent. A subjective comparison of roost-size (area occupied) at Draycote with that at other sites (e.g. Blithfield and Chasewater in Staffordshire), where the number of birds is estimated in the order of 10000, would suggest that numbers at Draycote are substantially in excess of 25000.

Table 1 lists the five-yearly mean maximum counts from selected roosts. It should be noted that the 'mean' counts mask some wide variations in annual numbers (or estimates) and that , unfortunately, data are lacking from several other important sites.

Table 1. Five-yearly means of maximum counts of Black-headed Gulls at selected roost sites, 1986 - 2015.
(Numbers in brackets indicate figures based upon limited and perhaps unrepresentative data)

Changes in working practices at refuse tips and recent closures are inevitably affecting the numbers of gulls wintering inland, and a decline in numbers of most species is predictable (see Herring Gull for more detailed discussion of this issue). However, while numbers roosting at Coton in N. Warks and some other sites have declined significantly, counts from other roost sites close to landfill sites still in operation (e.g. Chasewater) do not as yet indicate a decline in overall numbers of wintering Black-headed Gulls (see Table 1).

Ringing recoveries show that Black-headed Gulls wintering in the region originate from both British and continental colonies. Within the UK, recoveries have shown arrivals from Hampshire, Kent, Essex, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, and Shetland (The New birds of the West Midlands, Harrrison & Harrison 2005). A majority of ringing recoveries in Britain as a whole, of gulls ringed in Europe, is from Fennoscandia, the Baltic states, the Netherlands and Denmark, with others from further east in Russia, Germany, Poland, Belarus and the Czech Republic (BTO's The Migration Atlas, 2002).  The Birds of the West Midlands (Harrison et al. 1982) documents 96 recoveries from ten European countries (including the Baltic States), of which 21 (21.9%) were from Denmark, 19 (19.8%) from Holland, 14 (14.6%) from Finland, and 11 (11.5%) from Germany.

Breeding status

Black-headed Gulls have a long history of breeding in Staffordshire and a more recent presence in Warwickshire and Worcestershire (for details see Harrison et al., 1982, The Birds of the West Midlands, and Harrison & Harrison, 2005, The New Birds of the West Midlands). In Staffordshire, around a dozen pairs continued to breed at Aqualate up to 2005 but thereafter numbers declined and in 2010 no breeding occurred. In 2007 nesting activity was recorded at the nearby Coley Brook Marsh. However, the principal breeding areas are now based on the sand-and-gravel workings in the Tame/Trent Valley system of southern Staffordshire and north Warwickshire. As many as 123 pairs nested at Elford (Staffs) in 1987 but this had declined to 52 pairs by 1990. At the nearby Barton pits 100 young were counted in 1994.Three pairs bred at Kingsbury Water Park (Warks) in 1982 and by 2005 150 pairs bred at Kingsbury and 231 pulli were ringed. Breeding in this area has expanded to 250 pairs by 2015. The largest breeding colony in the region is now at the adjoining Middleton Lakes RSPB reserve (Staffs / Warks), where there were 825 nests in 2015. Other notable colonies in Staffs include Whitemoor Haye and Tameside, with 160 nests and 80 nests, respectively, in 2015.

In Worcestershire a pair bred at Wilden in 1970 and breeding was recorded here on a few occasions up to 1981. The species bred in 1985 at Bredons Hardwick. Since 2005, Upton Warren has become the principal breeding site, with 35 pairs rearing 65 young in 2009 and 283 pairs nesting by 2015 (though predation levels were high).

In the 'West Midlands County' nesting has occurred at Ryders Mere since 2008 and 300 young were counted in June 2015. At Marsh Lane breeding has occurred since 2009, with around 350 nests and 237 young counted in 2015.

Harrison & Harrison (2005) wrote that ringing has shown nestlings from colonies in the region disperse widely across the UK during the first few months after fledging, with recoveries from Dorset, Cornwall and many Welsh counties.