Earlier this year I had the chance to join members of North Thames Gull Group on a cannon-netting expedition to Guernsey. This was the second year the team had visited the island to help local ringer Paul Veron with his colour-marking project.
The expedition was a great success, with 1,008 Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls caught, 72 of which were already ringed, providing great recapture data. Many of these birds were also colour-ringed, which was the main aim of the exercise, and, while on the tip, we were also able to read plenty of colour rings on birds: our daily best was 121 individuals.
So do keep an eye out for one of our gulls — or any other colour-ringed birds — and track them down online at cr-birding or report them via www.ring.ac.
