12 & 13 June 2009
Paul and Catherine Veron set off for Alderney
on the 5.45p.m. Blue Islands flight to Alderney on Thursday 11th
June with the aim of colour ringing as many adult Lesser Black Backed
Gulls as
possible on Burhou. The two ringers
were
met at Alderney Airport by Afra Skene, the Alderney Wildlife Trust
ecologist who
provided an excellent escort for the rest of the visit.
After a delicious fish and chip supper a
comfortable bed was sought out and provided at the Alderney Wildlife
Trust’s Essex
Farm.
An early start the next day in order to cross
the Swinge in the Alderney Wildlife trust’s new rib saw all three
safely landed
on the island by 8.00am. We were soon
trapping adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls, fitting a metal ring, colour
ring and
measuring the head and bill length so that we could determine the sex
of the
birds. Finally a photograph of all gulls was taken for recording
purposes
before they were released. Most sessions
resulted in at least one capture with the occasional run when five
gulls were
caught at the same time. The team conjectured that the timing of the
visit was perfect.
In order to regulate disturbance, once the area
behind the hut was worked four times (each time moving through the
colony), the
team moved onto the gull breeding area in the south central part of the
island. This large area of nesting proved
very
fruitful although it was difficult to catch birds in tall vegetation.
The team
worked through the colony, ringing the birds on the beach out of sight
of the nesting
birds. By 5pm they had reached the west
side of the island and with the tide at its lowest, they made a short
sortie
across to Little Burhou to look for nesting Shags.
A total of 28 shags were ringed and it was
noted that the Cormorants had been successful although now all were too
large
to ring. Two small sub-colonies of
Lesser Black Backed Gulls (totalling up to 100 pairs) were breeding on
the
small islet. A Common Buzzard was also seen harassing this gull colony
(and
again on the Saturday) – presumably looking for any stray pulli
although
rabbits were plentiful on Alderney albeit in short supply on Burhou.
The team returned to Burhou after ¾ hour and
carried on searching for Shag pulli but most were either inaccessible,
too small
or had failed on Burhou. Four chicks were ringed.
After a reasonable night’s sleep in the hut,
the team returned to the far west end of the island to continue the
Lesser
Black Backed Gull ringing. The same
formula was adopted of ringing on the beach until the team was close
enough to
the hut to be able to use it as the base.
A total of 67 adults were caught over the day and
a half, which should provide very valuable data for Paul’s gull
research for
many years to come. Three metal ringed
adults were also retrapped – all had originally been ringed on
Burhou as
follows –
E 12327 adult male caught on 12th
June – originally ringed as a nestling on Burhou on 19th
July 2003
E 12420 adult male caught on 13th
June – originally ringed as a nestling on Burhou on 19th
July 2003
E 5666 adult male caught on 13th
June – originally ringed as a nestling by Paul on Burhou on 6th
July
1993.
By noon all the Gull ringing had been completed
and a short nesting survey of the main Lesser Black Backed Gull colony
in front
of the hut was carried out by the team, utilising pasta shells to mark
the
counted nests. A total of 502 active
nests with either eggs or young were recorded.
The team packed up their gear and then waited
for their pick up from the rib at 1.30pm.
A short delay was necessary whilst a technician visited the hut
to
switch over batteries for the Puffin Webcam.
The ringing team was delighted with the results of their visit and pleased to see the Burhou’s Lesser Black-backed Gulls doing so well – especially after the virtual complete failure of the colony in 2008.
Catherine Veron
16/6/09