Second visit to RSPB Blue Circle Island

At the start of last week, Matthew Tickner and I paid our second visit of the season to Blue Circle Island, one of the two islands which make up the RSPB reserve on Larne Lough, Co. Antrim.

Matthew was visiting to monitor the nesting terns and I tagged along to try and ring some more young Black-headed Gulls.  Thankfully, this time we had a couple of helpers in the shape of Seamus Burns and his son, Ciaran.

Blummin' tourists!

As Matthew and Seamus got on with counting tern nests, Ciaran and I began trying to round up the last of the gulls chicks which had yet to fledge in my very fancy, top-of-the-range, unbelievably expensive, gull-storage box (see below!).

Photo by Seamus Burns

Fitting metal BTO ring to young BHG
Photo by Seamus Burns

Fitting plastic colour-ring, 2BCR, to young BHG
Photo by Seamus Burns

2BCR must've liked our company and decided to hang around!
Photo by Seamus Burns

The vegetation on the island ranges from a small tidal pool and a bit of salt-marsh to long grass, which is where the Black-headed Gulls mainly nest and the young birds tend to hide!

We're kneeling down in this photo, the grass isn't that long!
Photo by Seamus Burns

Ciaran keeping me right!
Photo by Seamus Burns

Having Ciaran assisting was a big help, it meant I wasn't trying to ring and scribe at the same time.  On the flip side, Seamus helping Matthew meant it didn't take as long to count all the nests and our time on the island was cut short.  In the end, however, we caught and colour-ringed another 25 birds, taking the total number of pulli ringed on Blue Circle this season to 61.

Photo by Seamus Burns

Many thanks to RSPB NI for granting permission to ring on their reserve and purchasing some rings for the project and to Matthew, Ciaran and Seamus for their help.