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.