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!

More urban gulls and a very Cornish surprise

Yesterday was spent catching up with the Rinsey Kittiwakes, but this didn't entirely go to plan. In perfect weather, the colony was worryingly quiet and a scan through produced a few sat birds but the only birds I could see on anything were three pairs on a total of four eggs! I know the season is a bit late, but compare this to 5th July last year when I counted 32 chicks, some of which were well on their way to fledging...

The only consolation was a very Cornish surprise on the way down to the site, barely viewable in this shockingly low-quality iPhone footage.

So further work abandoned we headed to Falmouth to mop up a few more roof-nesting gulls. This was marginally more successful, with an easy roof yielding 13 Herring Gulls of various sizes, but all big enough to now be sporting a colour ring.