Those aren't gulls!

Just as this time last year, the blog has taken a backseat recently to fieldwork for much bigger, darker birds than Black-headed Gulls!

Brood of four large Raven chicks in Co. Down

We have more than doubled the number of Raven nests we're monitoring for the NI Raptor Study Group since 2014 and this has taken up much of our time of the past few weeks.

A sample of nests are also visited in order to establish accurate brood counts and the young are ringed to try and learn some more about their movements and how long they live.

As winter has made an unexpected return to Northern Ireland, I will take advantage of the unfavourable weather and post a couple of updates on the gull project over coming days.