We finished our seabird monitoring on a high with the storm petrels on Burhou on the night of 19th and 20th with 350 new storm petrels rung and 92 control re-traps it was a great weekend but this is only part of the story  once again many seabirds failed this breeding season this is due to many factors from the winter storms to loss of habitat but the biggest threat to our seabird at the moment is the brown rat on many of our offshore islets and human disturbance but on a brighter note I am now back down the reedbeds at the Clare Mare with eight nets up in the reedbeds and has been a good start to the autumn season spending two or three hours ringing in the morning before work over the last couple of days I have managed to to ring so far 92 swallows 36 sedge warbler 27 Reed warbler 15 willow warbler 1 Robin 3 wrens and one dunnock hoping the weather stays good week i would like to thank Phil and Paul for their help with the storm petrels and a big thanks to the Alderney wildlife trust and the states of Alderney for allowing us to ring on Burhou one of the most important seabird breeding grounds within the Bailiwick of Guernsey and Channel Islands.

sedge warbler

Robin

 

I spent this weekend cutting rides out down the claire mare reed beds start ringing when we get back from Alderney next weekend from doing storm petrels the last of our seabird monitoring this year while down the Claire mare I put up one 60 Mist net mainly for swallows managed to ring 30 swallows and to reed warblers and one controlled reed warbler that I rung on 30 July 2012 as an adult male hoping to go back Wednesday evening to do some more swallows whether permitting


swallows