Well, it's over again for another year. This year the team from Merseyside consisted of thirteen in all - five A permits, one C, two trainees, three scribes and two runners. We arrived on the island on Sunday 27th in warm and sunny weather. As is usual we did however have a period of rain resulting in wet tents and feet but, after that passage, the rest of our stay was in warm, sunny and, sometimes, windy conditions.
The group split into two ringing teams who essentially ringed separately. One team did two nights ringing on the slabs, split by a session on the Maze, while the other team did three nights on the Maze. The last night was a quick session by a reduced team on the Lower Camp site, while others had an early night prior to the journey home.
In all we ringed 922 new Stormies, with 240 recoveries, including eight controls - four Nowegian and four Portugese. One of the Portugese is currently under investigation as a 'possible' from the Mediterranean race of Stormies.
We also managed two Great Skua, four Fulmar and a 3J Wheatear.

We continued our practise of taking wings and weights, and this year combined this with taking faecal swabs for analysis. One night we took intense measurements of bill lengths and ratios - with most of the birds photographed as well. We also collected Skua pellets to see if, as elsewhere, Skuas are taking Storm Petrels. Of fifteen full, in tact, pellets collected, eight of them showed signs of containing bits of Stormie.

More details to follow - including our boat trip around the island.