A bang on gull cannon netting session today at Daneshill Landfill Site nr Retford. Duncan, Mick & myself wore our North Notts RG hard hats, rigger boots & high-viz jackets (a bit YMCA I know), for the first ever gull cannon session in Nottinghamshire. The team of 14 was also made up of ringers from Sorby Breck RG & Essex.
The site has quite a small tipping area, but there was just enough room to set a net away from the refuse trucks, and the spiky driver very obligingly spread a nice lot of domestic waste in front of the net. The gulls were mad for it, and once a jiggler was set up to keep the small gulls out of the safety zone, a quick catch was taken of 235 gulls. Species totals were: Greater Black-backed Gull - 23; Herring Gull - 28, plus a first winter control from Russia (only been about 20 of those apparently); Common Gull - 5, Black-headed Gull - 176, plus two controls (one British & the other Sweden). Several of the Herring Gulls were the Scandinavian sub-species argentatus, and another bird was a probable 1st winter Yellow-legged Gull (pictures taken for verification).
Most of the big gulls had yellow darvics and some of the Black-headed Gulls had red darvics fitted to their left legs, so please look out for them.
Considering it was a new ringing site, a new team and Jez Blackburn's fourth time out cannon netting the gulls, the session went blindingly well, which says an awful lot about Jez and the way everyone else mucked in.
Jim
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