The Gull Team at Chouet

My apologies for the lack of blog entries this week, but we have all been incredibly busy trying to ring adult gulls at Chouet landfiill. Paul Roper and members of the North Thames Gull Group once again very kindly visited Guernsey to help with our long-term gull studies. Due to an incredible amount of hard work by them, and the Guernsey Team (assisted by helpers from Jersey too), and the tremendous help and support given by staff and management at Chouet landfill, and the almost perfect weather...we managed to exceed all our wildest expectations and catch somewhere in the region of 1800 large gulls.

This will make a staggeringly large contribution to our long term studies on the gulls of the Channel Islands and the changes that are happening (and are likely to continue to happen) in their populations and breeding ecology.

I don't yet have the details of the catches...or the exact totals...but we are already observing some of the newly ringed birds in their breeding colonies, and there has also been a movement of a Lesser Black-backed Gull to Gloucester, ENGLAND (within a matter of days of ringing).

There were so many incredible experiences during the week, that it is hard to pick out highlights, but I will include a few in the blog entries for the next week or two - as time permits.

In the meantime...a huge THANK YOU to Paul Roper, and the North Thames Gull Group Team, and also to the Guernsey Seabird Team and its helpers. Such scientific studies would simply not be possible without the help of a large and commited team of people!

Part of the Gull Team in full flow - (c) Mark Lawlor