Tuesday 21 June 2011

'Kraving' more Black-heads - Killington, Cumbria - 20th June 2011

above and below - Black-headed Gull catching (photos by Gillian Dinsmore)
A follow up trip to the Killington Black-headed Gull colony with Kane, Chris and Gillian Dinsmore (whose first time it was catching Black-heads). We caught a further 128 chicks which has again helped to boost my totals for my training.
After this, we had a quick wash and change of dirty clothes (as well as a dry off in the case of Mr. Chris Bridge whom fell in whilst catching a wayward Black-head in the water...now that's commitment to ringing!) we totted up the totals from this years two visits. Finding out that we had ringed 598 birds, we were left slightly unsettled so Gillian and myself set up camp in the front of her car where we set out trying to catch a few adults. Using Krave breakfast cereal as bait (hence the title) we lured the birds back in. I never thought it would take so long to catch two birds, but I managed to grab two stunning adults. They really are beautiful birds as adults and I can't wait for the winter months to be able to (hopefully) catch lots of these overlooked beauties.
It's not all catching and ringing birds when I go out these days. I was lucky enough to spot this Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary in the juncus which is the first Fritillary species I have seen in the UK. They really are beautiful organisms, and make me gasp every time I catch my first glimpse of them.

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