Manxies, some very late owls and a Norwegian Curlew

We've been busy over the last couple of weeks, so have a few bits of news to share.

Over the August new moon we ran two Storm Petrel public ringing demonstrations, aiming to give people the rare chance to see these amazing birds up close. The visitors to Porthgwarra were not only treated to seeing a few Stormies in the hand (and enjoying their distinctive smell), but also a couple of Manx Shearwaters! These are only the second and third we've caught in Cornwall so it was incredibly lucky to have two on the same night. As far as we can tell, only 28 Manxies have ever been caught in the county, including seven in 2002, one by the ringing group at Lizard in 2015 and now two more.

Over the weekend we also took the opportunity to visit the last two active Barn Owl sites we monitor. both of which we think are replacement clutches after an early failure. Sadly one of these didn't progress past two eggs, but the other had a brood of very young chicks (and possibly two unhatched eggs), so these are likely to be ready to ring in September. We rarely ring chicks this late in the season and in fact we've only ever ringed one brood in September, on the very late date of 22nd September 2020.

Lastly, we were contacted this morning by the Head Greenkeeper at Newquay Golf Club as one of their staff had found a dead Curlew on the course, sadly predated. The bird was ringed though and is in fact the first ever Norwegian-ringed Curlew to be found in Cornwall. We've had birds from Sweden and Finland in the past, but this bird completes the Scandinavian trio, so it'll be interesting to see where and when it was ringed.

23-hour ringing day!

You know it's summer when you're up before 5am to be out ringing gull chicks and then back home at 4am having been ringing Storm Petrels all night!

This last week has seen various small teams out on rooftops around Falmouth ringing gull chicks, all part of the ever-growing project looking at the behaviour and movements of urban Herring Gulls. So far we've ringed 25 birds on St Mary's School, 20 on Tregnoniggie Industrial Estate, 65 on the university campus roofs in Penryn and various other smaller groups.

Ringing chicks on the roof of Wilko in Falmouth

It's was also full moon last night and perfect weather for some Storm Petrel ringing, so a small team headed down to Gwennap Head, Porthgwarra. As the wind dropped the birds started arriving at the nets and we were set for a busy night!

The final tally was 114 new birds ringed and six birds retrapped that weer already ringed. Three of these were birds we'd ringed previously, one just a month ago at Lizard. Another was a bird we ringed at Porthgwarra in July 2018 that was recaught in North Wales just a week later. Another has a slightly more interesting history. It was ringed at Porthgwarra in June 2015, then recaught on Skokholm Island in July 2015 and in Ceredigion 10 days later. In an almost identical occurence it was recaught again on Skokholm Island in August 2018 and in North Wales nine days later!

Other ringed birds came from Co Mayo (ringed in 2008, so a good age), Skokholm Island in 2018 and also a Spanish-ringed bird. This is only the seventh Spanish-ringed Storm Petrel to be found in the UK, but the fourth at Gwennap Head (after birds in 2008, 2009 and 2017)! Others have been caught at Pendeen (in 2005), Tyne & Wear (in 1992) and two in Scotland.