Grant submissions

Last year we thought we had fully mastered the in-hand sexing of Storm Petrels. However, fresh eyes and new opinion this year took us virtually back to square one. In conclusion we consider those at extremes of morphology are sexable, while the majority sit between these extremes. In order to add full value to the birds we are catching we need to reduce the number of birds that sit in the middle. Consulting literature and those who have been handling Stormies for years we felt there was still insufficient guidance in this area. To this end we have prepared and submitted two grants, one to the Seabird Group and the other to the BOU.
In essence we are requesting funding to molecularly sex 200 Storm Petrels - this to be our gold standard. Then while birds are in the hand we shall take morphological measurements and a series of photographs which will then be analysed and interpreted (blind) to assign sex to an individual. The resultant sexing of individuals by these methods (alone or in combination) will then be compared to the molecular result in the hope of producing more detailed guidelines for sexing Storm Petrels.

Update on 2019

Time to update everyone - although I am still awaiting official notification of the six controls - three from Portugal and three from Norway.

Final totals Stormies - 1285 new birds, 124 retraps and 43 controls. (Any numerical inaccuracies indicate data on individual birds is still awaited).

Nan Ron /Nan Ron retraps - birds ringed on Nan Ron and later recaught on Nan Ron. The chart below shows the year of original ringing and the number of birds involved.

At the one extreme we have one bird that is 20 years old and at the other we recaught 40 birds that we had ringed on earlier nights during this visit. Also of note is the number of years missing which may just simply reflect the low numbers of Storm Petrels caught in those years.

Birds ringed on Nan Ron and caught elsewhere in 2019. Only three birds involved this year. Two, one ringed 2006 the other 2019, both recaught on Birsay, Orkney c88miles away (one after 4750 days, the other after 10); and the other ringed in 2019 and recaught East Side, Orkney two days later.

Birds ringed elsewhere and controlled on Nan Ron in 2019

The chart shows 20 birds. The first column is the year ringed, the second the initial place of capture and ringing, and then the elapsed time in days, and then distance, between this site and Nan Ron.

Great Skua - nine new birds caught and ringed, with 16 retraps still alive e.g. birds caught and ringed by Stefan earlier in the year.

In addition 47 nest record cards for Fulmar were submitted and all bird observations were submitted via Birdtrack.

For costs this year we used over £600 worth of rings. At this point we would like to thank John Birch for his completely unsolicited, but very welcome, contribution to ring costs.