Phil, Mick and I held another session to catch the adult Sand Martins. After the session Phil looked at the results and his report is below.
Kev
43 birds caught, 28 of which were adults. The total number of adults caught this year is now 93, which exceeds the estimated number of breeding pairs (first brood). With the number of retrapped adults again being very low, it is clear that the population is currently very dynamic. It also appears that the natural colony has been abandoned so it is likely that some of the adults that were nesting on the natural colony have now relocated across to the artificial bank. All unproven of course!
After the Sand Martin session, Pete joined Mick and I with the boat to have a look at the Main Pond tern platform and the Cormorant islands. The tern platform had Black-headed Gulls nesting as well as Common Terns and we ringed 7 gull chicks and 14 tern chicks. There are still a good number of tern nests with eggs. The main Cormorant island had plenty of nests, mostly with large chicks that prevented a safe landing. The small island had no large chicks visible in nests so we landed, ringed a couple of chicks and found a number of nests with eggs. It looks like we will be ringing Cormorants into the late summer again.
Phil
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