21st May 2012
The first day was spent looking at the site and seeing where we could make catching attempts. After some working out with a very tight net set and some interesting waits for vehicle movements the end of the day was a great success with three catches taken. The most pleasing was 61 new Lesser Blacked-backed Gulls which were our main target species for Paul Veron’s project.
22nd May 2012
Slightly more time and a better organised day allowed four catches to be taken. However, the best part of the day was the proportion of Lesser Black-backed to Herring Gulls again and a total of 118 new Lessers was excellent.
23rd May 2012
Back to three catches today and again a fantastic attempt with another 147 new Lesser Black-backed Gulls talk of 500 of this target species for the week was starting to rumble around the team!
24th May 2012
Only two catches today but it was well worth it as we were deliberately and successfully targeting the Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Another 85 new birds in the bag and a bonus Yellow-legged Gull for one of the Guernsey team as a ringing tick.
25th May 2012
A much more difficult day with birds really not wanting to play. Birds seemed reluctant to feed and were certainly not interested in our catching area. Some stoic work from Mel the compactor driver gave us another 48 new Lesser Black-backed Gulls but hot weather also limited the catching options.
26th May 2012
This was the last chance with probably only a single catch possible as we needed to be off the tip early. We only needed 51 new Lesser Black-backed Gulls to make 500 new. However with 28 retraps we were confident we could make over 500 of this species for the week. However, the birds decided they just did not want to play and it got later and later. Of course just when it was a bit too late birds came onto the waste and of course too many birds. There were lots of Herring Gulls at this time but also what looked like about 40-50 Lessers. After a very quick discussion with Paul I took the decision to take the catch and only process the Lesser Black-backed Gulls. It is hard to release Herring Gulls unringed, when you have caught them but we were not able to stay on the tip any longer and would not have had time to finish them all. The 40 new Lesser Black-backed Gulls left us with the final total of 489 ringed. To get that close was frustrating but all in all and given the weather conditions the week before the week was a fantastic success with target species percentage of all catches kept very high.
Summary
Thanks to all the Guernsey team and the tip staff for all their hard work over the week and I am sure Paul Veron is delighted with the results.
Paul Roper Return to home page