Jenny Blog
Ringing’s going really well; the beautiful calm weather has allowed us to put mistnets up most days and we’ve now rung close to 450 Razorbills and 200 Puffins. A few Guillemots and Fulmars in for good luck as well. We’ve been targeting Puffin chicks as well as the adults - Razorbill and Guillemot chicks are still too small to ring as the breeding season seems to be late again this year. This probably doubles the year’s total for adult Razorbills, as this is such an amazingly large colony. We’ve had a few birds that have already been rung - some of the rings have almost lost their numbers they’re so worn, so these birds might be 20 years old or more. The oldest Razorbill in Britain is over 40 and the Fulmar record is towards 50! Also had a reccie of Mary’s Island and found a handful of Great Black-backed Gull and Bonxie chicks to ring. Two nights have been calm enough to allow Storm Petrel catching - a total of 130 new birds and 4 that have been ringed previously elsewhere . Hopefully the wind will stay light so we can can catch plenty more birds before we depart for our next ringing destination.
Jenny Lennon
7 July 2006
