?last of 2019 first of 2020?

2592002
03.08.2017 // age 6 // Tiumpan Head, Western Isles
31.07.2019 // age 4 // ENR
727days 110km 

GPS track on Italian Storm Petrel

Posted by Feberico De Pascalis via his Twitter account (@fdepa1) the first GPS track of an italian storm petrel - a 28g bird travelling up to 200km from its breeding colony foraging in a single day! Wonder if it does this every day?

and more.

First two British controls, then Norwegians
2739230
12.7.2019 Shillay Island, Western Isles
29.7.2019 ENR = 17 days 190km

2762170
17.4.2016 Fair Isle Bird Observatory
29.7.2019 ENR = 13 days 190km

2E07409 
26.08.2017  Herdlevaer, Oygarden, Hordeland, Norway
31.07.2019 ENR = 704 days, 561km

ED00284
09.08.2014 Hamnaholmen, Romsdal, Norway
01.08.2019 ENR = 1818 days, 675km

ED03463
20.07.2019 Lindesnes Fyr, Vest-Agder, Norway
02.08.2019 ENR = 13 days, 670km

Good news x2 (or is that three?)

1. We heard, just before Christmas, that one of our grant applications had been successful. Our request to the Seabird Group had been approved, so we have some money in the pot to enable us to molecularly sex some of the birds we catch this year as part of our study on trying to produce a definitive method for pheno-morphological sexing of Storm Petrel (i.e. can you do it by just looking at the bird in the hand together with a few measurements).
2 and 3. Have just had news back of the Portuguese birds caught last year.
Both were initially caught and ringed at the same place - Ponta de Almadena, Portugal - one on the 18th June (N7599) and the other (N7624) on 20th. N7624 was recaptured on Nan Ron on the 30th July and N7599 the next night. So both had covered the 2411km in about 40 days.

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.

It's not all about the birds.

A little added value is collecting data on other taxa. This year we took a moth trap (and set it in two different locations on separate nights).

Both nights were extremely productive with over 50 species of moth identified, and others still to be correctly named.
The most numerous were Dark Arches (119), Antler Moth (37) and Garden Tiger (28).

Free flying butterflies included Painted Lady (abundant), Meadow Brown (10) and Small Blue (3+). Other insects included Violet Ground and Black Sexton Beetles, Yellow Dung Fly, Marmalade Hoverfly and White-tailed and Buff-tailed bumblebees.

The Moth class in session.