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What we know about "our" herring gull Josefine

1. August 2024

Birdwatching

For a while now, two herring gulls have been "living" on our rooftop balcony. Before that they lived on a chimney across the street. We called the male Gulliver, and the female Josefine. Josefine has a color ring around her leg, which is registered in an online database where we can see past observations of her.

Species

European Herring Gull

Adult herring gull looking at the camera from behind a diagonal roof.

She's at least 13 years old

She received her ring in January of 2016 as an adult, 5 years or older. This means she hatched in or before 2011, and at least 13 years old at the time of writing. It's not possible to age gulls once they reach adulthood, so she could be anything from 13 to 30 years or older (the oldest herring gull recorded is 49 years old).

She has been frequenting our area for at least 8 years

Ever since she received her ring, she's been consistently observed in the parks around our area, and several times right down the street from us. There are a few exceptions. Like the rest of our herring gull flock she breeds outside the city center, and she has occasionally been observed at other gull hotspots.

I've seen her on the neighbor's chimney since at least February 2023, when I first started taking pictures of the gulls in our street, and she's been frequenting our balcony since February 2024. The gulls where already on the chimney's before February 2023 (that's just when I started following along with them), and most of them around here seem to return to their exact same spot every day, so I think it'sw safe to say she's been living on these roofs for a long time.

Adult herring gull looking straight at the camera, with a stern look on her face. Another gull is standing out of focus in front of her, and the background is a blue-ish out of focus color.

Often observed with the same gulls

Ever since she first appeared in my pictures, she's been together with the same gull, who we called Gulliver. He's the one who first made the move from the chimney to the balcony, and the one who caused us to really start following along with the comings and goings of the flock.

Gulliver

Gulliver and Josefine are clearly a couple, doing everything toghether. When he's out looking for food, she patiently waits for him on top of our chimney, and while she's gone he patrols the balcony wall, and when they spot eachother in the distance they call out to eachother with excitement, loudly. Gulliver seems to be very protective over Josefine, chasing other gulls away from her and also guarding her while she's eating.

Portrait of a European Herring Gull in a snow storm. The picture is zoomed in on his face, the background is an out of focus hazy dark purple/gray, and there's snow falling around the gull. He's in adult winter plumage, white body with gray stripes on the head and around the eyes.

JMT80

I don't have any pictures of JMT80 (or Jean-Marie, as we call him) uploaded yet, but he's one of the few gulls who's occasionally allowed to visit the roof while Gulliver & Josefine are there. He received his ring in 2022 as a 5+, so he's at least in his 7th year currently, and breeds on the same island as Gulliver & Josefine.

He's really not afraid of a battle, and I think one of the reasons they tolerate him on "their" roof is because they don't have a choice.

JLN44

In her observations, some of the other neighborhood gulls their numbers have been mentioned as well, and vice versa.

One of them is JLN44, aka Julien, who's at least 9. He was here the first time Gulliver was on the roof. He has visited a handful of times together with Gulliver & Josefine since then, and he occasionally gets observed in the nearby park as well.

Adult herring gull in winter plumage, standing on a chimney, surrounded by snow.

She has been to prison...

Amongst the observations of her, one of them was at the prison not far away from here. It's a popular spot for gulls since there's food to be had in the park next to it, but I'd like to believe she had to spend the night in jail for being a bad gull 🤭

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