Chouet Lures Me Back!

Another hour at Chouet Landfill Beach this morning gave 79 cr reads (all but six) on my Lesser Black-backed Gulls. For most of the time the light was as dull as yesterday, but there were a few moments when the sunshine burst through the clouds. It was another highly enjoyable watch.



Back at Chouet

After what seemed like an age I managed to get out to Chouet Landfill Beach for 90 minutes before work yesterday. It was both peaceful and relaxing to be scoping through the gull flocks there picking out colour ringed (cr) gulls. I concentrated on Lesser Black-backed Gulls, reading 72 of my rings, but eight ring reads on Great Black-backed Gulls was also very good. The latter included the full code on a British-ringed GBBG - London MA27001. Unfortunately it was heavily overcast, so conditions for photography were difficult. 

Chouet Landfill Beach 21 June 2011 PKV 

GBBG London MA27001 - PKV



A Lovely Visit to Sark

This year I am trying to time our two visits to Sark to focus on colour ringing a sample of Herring Gull chicks and Lesser Black-backed Gull chicks. With the former nesting c 2 weeks earlier than the latter, Catherine and I went over to Sark on Sunday and Monday. With the very kind assistance of Andy Cook and Sue Daly we were not only able to colour ring 25 gull chicks (23 Herring, one Great Black-backed and one Lesser Black-backed Gull), but also enjoy a wonderfully relaxing time on one of our favourite islands. The dull weather kept temperatures down, and it was also dry while making the boat landings.

As elsewhere in the Bailiwick of Guernsey in 2011, European Shags had bred very early in Sark and there was abundant evidence that they had done rather well. Cruising the north and east coastlines we counted more than 100 fledged juveniles.

Our sincere thanks to Andy and Sue for their much valued help with our projects.

Monitoring Lihou's Gulls

With Jamie Hooper's much appreciated help, (and the necessary permission of the States Environment Department) I went over to Lihou Island yesterday to try to assess the gull breeding season. We managed to complete a circuit of the island's coastline, and almost completed the work on Lissroy too, before the tide began to cover the causeway again and we had to retreat back to Guernsey.

There were relatively few Herring Gull and Great Black-backed Gull chicks on the south side of the island, and quite a few empty nests (which looked very clean and therefore unused). This pattern was repeated on the west side, but fortunately the usual stronghold on the eastern side proved to be very good with double figures of well-grown Herring Gull chicks.

It was a well-timed visit because although almost all of the gull chicks found (except the very small ones) were large enough to take a colour ring, none was yet big enough to attempt to fledge and fly down the beach. Instead all birds stayed hiding under rocks or in the rock crevices.

As expected there were few Lesser Black-backed Gulls, and most of these appeared to still have eggs or very small young.

We managed to ring 28 Herring Gulls and 18 Great Black-backed Gulls - which is pretty reasonable these days.

Lihou 

GBBG Yellow 0.TT6 

Herring Gull White 8CP0



Lesser Black-backed Gulls on Burhou, Alderney

This past weekend I was on Burhou - the Channel Islands' largest breeding colony of Lesser Black-backed Gulls (c, 1,000 pairs). With much help from the Alderney Wildlife Trust (Liz Morgan and Lizzy White in particular) I was able to add to my research project by colour ringing another 64 adult gulls (as well as re-trapping four which I had colour ringed in previous years (2010 - three and 2009 - one). I was very pleased to add colour rings to five gulls which had been metal ringed as chicks on the Burhou colony in July 2000 (one), 2003 (one) and 2006 (one) (two birds not yet known).



More Lesser Black-backed Gulls at Chouet

A repeat visit early this morning to Chouet resulted in the sighting of another 53 colour ringed Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Although the gulls were at closer range, the dull poor light this morning made photography less satisfying, but it was still pleasing to get some photos of many of these gulls.



Back at Chouet

The summer season is so busy with work, seabird monitoring and gull catching that this is the period that I find it hardest to get to Chouet and the beaches to record colour ringed gulls. This morning I managed a 30 minute watch an hour and a half before high tide. Although not a perfect tide, it was fantastic to get back to the beach with my telescope, and to begin to appreciate the success of the cannon netting week earlier in May when we managed to add colour rings to 470 Lesser Black-backed Gulls! I recorded 27 colour ringed LBBGs, as well as a few Herring Gulls and Great Black-backed Gulls.



Seabird Monitoring Visit to Jethou



Yesterday the Guernsey Seabird Monitoring Team visited Jethou Island, with the kind permission of the owner Dr Peter Ogden. It was a very valuable visit, confirming that 2011 is the earliest breeding season for European Shag in the Bailiwick of Guernsey since I began visits to the colonies here back in 1980!

96 seabird chicks were ringed - 88 Shag, six Great Black-backed Gulls and two Little Egrets.

31 adult colour ringed gulls from my long-term study were located in their breeding colonies (30 Herring and one Lesser Black-backed Gull)- which is a very exciting contribution to the study.

A full account of the visit with more photos can be found at:-

http://www.paulveron.com/Jethou%2002%20June%202011.html