Some of yesterdays photos of our second trip to Lihoumel to do Cormorant pullus with Paul and Catherine, we managed to ring another seven birds we are hoping to get out to the humps this coming week weather permitting, as the window is closing for Cormorant pullus fingers crossed for good weather the spring migration for ringing is nearly over to with poor weather conditions and clear nights I have not managed to catch many but now we will be busy with our sea birds starting on the 20th May with canon netting gulls at the tip with the Northames gull group.

With todays winds light I went to Jerbourg at about 6 am this morning and opened up 4 nets

there was not a lot happening up at Jerbourg with only 4 Willow warblers and 2 Whitethroat

trapped and rung I closed up at  about  9-30 at about 1-30 I met up with Paul and Catherine

At Lihou headland we went across to Lihou island  and then to Lihoumel to see how the

Cormorant colony there was doing there was about 15 active nests with mainly all small birds or eggs

we only managed to ring 6 pullis we will have to go back in about 10 days or so on the next spring tide

I went to the Claire mare this evening and opened up 2 nets there was not much doing there

by I had my first Sedge warbler of the year the only other birds were 2  Black birds

and a re-trap Reed warbler hoping to go to Alderney this coming week to do some ringing there

and to hopefully go to little Burhou to do the Cormorant colony there

pictures of  todays birds

With this mornings ringing out due to fog and very fine drizzle I met Paul at 10-30 at the land fill site
at Chout to try for Gulls with no success I went up Jerbourg at about 3 o clock this afternoon and opened up 4 nets with not a lot around I closed up at 5pm only catching 7 birds whitch were 5 chiffchaff and 2 willow warblers this evening Iwent to the Claire Mare with a lot of Swallows around
I opened up 2 nets and tryed for Swallows I managed to trap and ring 31 Swallows and 1 re-trap reed warbler  and 1 Sand martin .just before dusk there was about 1500 Swallows looking to roost in the reed bed at that time I closed the nets due to I had no head torch with me to be able to extract the Swallows from the nets hope to go back tomorrow evening to try again

 

With this years prolonged winter with cold easterly winds I have not been able to do much ringing
till now I have done some ringing at Jerbourg but with slow spring migration there is not much to report with only three days this month suitable for ringing it was nice to get out today to the humps
to see how the Comorants are doing I met up with Paul Catherine and Pauls daughter Sophie at the QE2 Marina where we met Pauls brother Chris and his wife we headded out for Godin where the main Comorant breeding colony was last year we were about two weeks later than last year Paul was very concerned that we might have missed the birds as last year when we went meny birds had already fledged on landing on Godin I clammered up the rocks while Paul and the others stayed on the lower rocks when I got up to the colony there was only nests with eggs in and no sign of any chicks so on returning to the boat we went up to Longpierre to have a look what was going on there though it is only a few hundred meters away from Godin I was surprised to see that there was already some chicks we managed to ring 10 birds with colour rings and metal rings with 17 nests on Longpierre and 15 on Godin it looks like the colony has split into two groups as last year there was over 25 nests on Godin it was slightly worrying to see that there was no Guillemots on either island
on the way back we only counted one Puffin but good numbers on Razorbill meny thanks to Pauls brother Chris for taking the time to take us up there
thanks again
On a lighter note there has been 3 sightings of colour ringed Comorants from last year one was on island BA was done as a pullus on Lihoumel on the 22/4/2012  and seen on the 13/9/2012 in Anez,Loire -Atlantique France by Pasal Bellion
BK was rung as a pullus on the 2/5/2012 then first seen on the 13/3/2013 on Wimbleball lake summerset england by Chris Gladman and again on the 19/4/2013 by the same person in the same place

On the 15th August 2011 Paul and I went to Burhou of Alderney with the BBC coast team,
To ring storm petrel one bird we caught was a re-trap,That was rung on Skokholm in
1974 4th August as a adult. It makes this bird at the time 37 years and 11 days old for a bird
that spends must of it life in some of the stormiest sea, and only return to Britain to breed

it is amazing,  This record eclipses the previous record by over five years

With the winds southeast to east 2-3 I met up with Phil my trainee at 8 oclock
and went to a new site behind the track at an old green house site we put up two
18 metre mist nets in two hours we caught 7 birds before the wind became 3-4
and with strong sun light I decided to close the nets the birds we caught 2 Great tit 2 Robins

1 Black bird 1Wren 1 Song thrush

With this year starting like 2012 finish it was good to do some gulls at Chouet Landfill at
the weekend with Paul, With 19 new Herring gulls rung and Four re-traps, One off witch was
rung in Jersey in June 1998. And two GBBG, It was good to get 2013 season under way.



         My Totals For 2012

  common scater        1           whitethrout           10

  marsh harrier           3          garden warbler        3
  sparrowhawk           2          black cap               72
  kestrel                      3          chiffchaff              46
  barn owl                   4         willow warbler      68
  swift                         1         gold crest               24
  sand martins             5         fire crest                12
  swallow                344         long tailed tit           3
 grey wagtail               1        chaffinch                10 
 wren                         22        green finch               6
 dunnock                   10        goldfinch                15
 robin                         33        linnet                      27
 black bird                 25        bullfinch                   1
 song thrush                 8
 red wing                     6
 sedge warbler           63
 reed   warbler            71