I am not sure as to how to set about writing this blog as i do not know where to start, i mean i think the title says it all really. An experience that i kinda walked blind into but one i will never forget.
The story starts with me currently in training to become a qualified bird ringer, which is quite simply the practice of putting rings on the legs of birds for the purpose of science. It sounds much easier than it really is and i am hoping to be qualified in 2 years time, however i do need to ring a certain number of species and rack up a total of 1,000 birds (currently on 30!....ish).
A few months back my ringing trainer and jolly nice chap Ian asked if i would like to join him in crossing the channel waters to the mortal enemy island of Guernsey for a bit of Cannon-Netting (focusing on Gulls), for which i immediately replied with 'yeah, what the heck'. I really had no idea what i was in for...
The trip started brilliantly with the free Blue Island executive lounge (obviously now my number 1 airline) with biscuits and drinks and things never went down from there. Once in Guernsey we were picked up by Paul whose was in charge of the study and off we went for dinner and camping in his garden. Slight tent problems were overcome, dinner was eaten and an early night was advised due to early start and the intensity of the netting experience.
The next day we were up at 5am, for which i felt suprisingly alert, we had breakfast and travelled down to the islands landfill site. Once there we were signed in, a high-vis jacket and hard hat were put on, and we were ready to go.
The landfill was pretty much disgusting and as a species we should be ashamed at what we throw away and how we treat our resources, but that is for a different blog at a different time.
When i arrived on site i was greeted with introductions to all of the team and took my seat under a pretty rickety bit of scaffolding that was our ringing. The aim of the whole study was to catch Lesser Black-backed Gulls and to ring them. This is because despite their common distribution we do not know what they do or where they go and Guernsey's landfill site has a large population of them, which we actually now know migrate down to Morocco in thw winter months.
Anyway, in total there was around 15,000 gulls around the site that included Herring, Lesser Blacked-backed and Greater Blacked-backed (there were no Seagulls as they do not exist and are a bit of a disliked word in the scientific community, you have been warned!).
So how do you catch a large gull to put a ring on its leg?????
Well, the only real way to catch them efficiently is to throw a net over them that is charged by explosives. This is no easy task easy and takes a hell of a lot of meticulate planning and timing to get the shot right.
The net is layed on a plastic cover and attached to 4 pipe cannons, which are then set with explosives and ready to go. Everyone is then placed behind the netting tent and we wait whilst the landfill truck baits the gulls with a haul of rubbish. As with everything in nature the gulls did not really play ball at first but once they were in the mode for a feeding frenzy we looked on patiently as the colleague on the trigger waited for the perfect moment. He needed to get the timing right though as we did not want to catch too many gulls or too many of the wrong species.
We waited and waited and waited, but suddenly everything kicked off and we rushed to the net. The next hour and half was ridiculously enjoyable, stressful, intense and full of great teamwork.
First of all the net was weight down with sandbags so none of the gulls could escape and one by one each one was put in a bag, which was then double tied and taken to the ringing net. The bags MUST be double tied as all species of gull are very cunning and will escape.
I must admit was a bit worried that the gulls would get stressed out but the team always had the animals welfare as their main concern and by the copious amounts of scars and bleeding on everyones hands i can assure you the gulls got their revenge.
Once all individuals were put into bags the ringing then started straight away. The worst part was putting your hand into a dark sand bag and knowing 100% that the gull would find your fingers and give you a solid bite (to be honest if i was the bird i woud have done the same). However this fear needed to be cast away and each bird was taken out and their head placed under your arm and feet in the air. Once under control a metal ring with the Channel Islands bird-ringing scheme details was put on the birds right leg and an ID ring was put on their left leg. Finally the distance between their beak and the top of their head was taken before they were finally released.
This ringing process needed to be as efficient as possible as the conditions were getting warmer and we wanted to release the birds as quick as possible so we really were under pressure and i had no idea how were going to get through so many birds.
However, i should not have doubted the process as i was in the company of experts who have done this all over the UK. We efficiently and quickly went through the approximate number 350 birds, which once done was quite unbelievable. Needless to say we all sat down for a cup of tea after.
This process was completed 3 times for that first day i was there and then once on the saturday morning, which was even more pressurised as the dump closed at 10am and we did not want to be locked in a landfill site!
The project had started on the monday and i joined up with them for the friday and saturday sessions but at the very end of the 6 days the team had managed to catch around 1700 gulls, which are currently all being input into the ringing database (glad that is not my task!) with the all important total of around 500 Lesser Black-backed gulls (double what they hoped for). So all in all a very successful week for everyone for which we went out to dinner to celebrate and talk all things wildlife.
Once of the best aspects of my 2 days was that I got to meet some great people who were not only passionate but experts in their field and who also liked a few beers to celebrate as well (oh the stories!). I must admit i also have a new found respect for gulls and how they have adapted so quickly to a new food source and how they take full advantage of our wasteful society. They are brilliant birds and do not deserve all the bad press, because at the end of the day if we were not so wasteful then there would no problems in our cities or towns.
All in all i had an amazing time and i will be there next year with a few more birds under my ringing name and the same desire to learn as much as i can. I never thought spending 2 days at a rubbish dump would be so much fun.
I have attached some photos to give you more of a feeling of what it was all like
Stephen
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