Common Gulls on Big Copeland

Shane Wolsey and I headed out to Big Copeland, the largest of the Copeland Islands, this morning hoping to colour-ring pulli Black-headed and Common Gulls.

When we arrived, we realised that there were no Black-headed Gulls to be seen, not even an adult.  This might explain why the colonies on Mew Island and the new one on Copeland Bird Observatory have done so well, these are the birds which previously nested on the Big Isle.

That put an end to any hopes I had of colour-ringing BHG, so we turned our attentions to Common Gulls which Shane is ringing as part of his study into their ecology (see here).

Although we were a couple of weeks late, with most of the young birds already having fledged, we still managed to catch and ring 24 new birds as part of Shane's study, so keep an eye out for Common Gulls fitted with blue colour-rings and report them to Shane.