Tiny Terns

After what seemed like an age not doing any ringing we fianlly got a session at Woolston on Saturday morning. The obligitory early start and we were furling nets as quickly as we put them up due to a heavy downpour. In spite of the brief interuption a decent session was had, out first Garden Warbler of the year was caught amongst the usual suspects. Again tho another session with no Sedge Warblers, very worrying.
Taking advantage of a break in the seemingly endless supply of wet weather Stephen Menzie and i joined Prof David Norman at the Little Tern colony at Gronant, North Wales yesterday. Little Terns require a schedule 1 license in order to enter, ring and photograph the colony, so this provided us with a quite unique experience. The colony holds over 400 birds with plenty of active nests, all nests are marked with a coloured peg for ease of monitoring by the wardens and volunteers that watch over the colony day and night. In total 14 chicks were rung with many more no doubt hiding in the dune system out of the ever present wind.

Little Tern colony and dunes

Typical Little Tern scrape decorated with broken shells

1 day old Little Tern

Little Tern family

Obviously the obligitory Little Tern posing flight shots