Not a bad first morning's netting!

We were joined netting yesterday by a new trainee, working on her PhD with the Cornish Jackdaw Project. Having ringed a heck of a lot of Jackdaws, this was Vic's first session out mist-netting and although we only caught 26 birds we certainly had quality over quantity. So you can't complain when the first non-crow you get to ring is a Stonechat (a scruffy moulting juvenile), closely followed by Tree Pipit, Reed and Sedge Warblers and lastly a Kingfisher!

The rest of the day was spent touring round a few regular haunts for colour-ringed birds, with mixed success. Men-aver beach held our first juvenile Med Gull sighting of the year, ringed in France in July and whilst watching it a Curlew casually walked behind it showing off a combination of red and green rings. It seemed vaguely familiar and was in fact a German-ringed bird first seen in Cornwall on the Roseland peninsula in August 2013 and then at Men-aver beach in August 2014 but not since.

Next stop was Gillan creek, where the only colour-ring on show was one of our own. W:085 was ringed as a chick on the roof of the Marine School in 2015 and not seen since.

Last up was a brief stop-off at Stithians Reservoir, where TBY, ringed on Mullion Island over the summer, was still sat on the island. All before making a brief appearance on BBC Five Live Drive (from 01:56:00) to talk about gull 'attacks' in Scarborough!