Mullion Cormorant in France

With so much time taken up recently putting up Barn Owl boxes it seems like an age since we blogged. But news today of one of our Mullion Island Cormorants gave cause to put pen to paper.

TBP was ringed as a chick on the island in April 2016 and hadn't been seen since before being found dead with a neck injury in France on 3rd March. This is the second of our birds to be found in France and the furthest movement to date. Perhaps not surprisingly, birds do tend to stick to the English Channel area but it's surprising they don't stray further north.

The only other recent sightings have been a bird roosting on Helston Loe Pool (along with up to 16 Cattle Egrets!) and a bird that has spent the winter at Chard Reservoir in Somerset.

Adults are already sitting on nests on the island so it won't be too long until we're back out starting our 2017 monitoring.

We don't have a photo of TBP when ringed,
but it probably looked very like TBR