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Shag nests on the south side of the island |
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Whilst some birds were nesting on open ground, most were tucked deep in the Mallow that covers half of the island. This doesn't make nest counting very easy, hence needing a small team to be able to line-search through the vegetation, which is often over head height!
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In total we located 70 nests, although we did miss some areas of the island. This compares reasonably well to the record count last year, but there were slightly fewer eggs/chicks than expected. Totals over the years for the island are shown below for info.
2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |
GBB Gull nests | 62 | 37 | 83 | 70 | |
GBB Gull eggs/chicks | 98 | 174 | 90 | 204 | 166 |
GBB Gull chicks ringed | 4 | 17 | 12 | 13 | |
Cormorant nests | 24 | 52 | 50 | 39 | 47 |
Cormorant chicks ringed | 11 | 19 | 7 | 16 | 0 |
Whilst on the island we were also hoping to ring some Shag chicks, but in the end only two right on top of the island were in a safe enough place to get to.
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