Silly birdy!

I had hoped to be writing about all the gulls I had ringed during the Christmas holidays, but a combination of illness and the stormy weather have resulted in me only getting out for the first time this afternoon.

I took my wee boy, who has just turned two on Christmas Eve, and we headed off to meet Kevin at the seafront in Carrickfergus. We had only arrived and I managed to catch an adult female almost immediately and the reaction from Ruben was brilliant, when he said, "Silly birdy!" while laughing....out of the mouths of babes, eh?!

After a while, Ru got a bit agitated and we had to go for a walk to see the big boats! It gave us an opportunity to check for colour-rings and we recorded 2ADD and 2ADB, as well as a bird with a foreign metal ring. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the code on the ring, but I will try again later in the week.

When we got back to the car we gave catching another go and were rewarded with an adult male.

These two birds have taken the total of birds ringed since starting the study to 149...I'm going to head out tomorrow in the hope of taking that total to 150 before the end of the year!