Happy for my tern

 Friday evening along with a small group of experienced NTGG ringers I helped ringed 14 Common Tern chicks and colour ring some more Black-headed Gulls (yellow) following on from the other week at the same site. I did think the BHG chicks were smart but was blown away by the Tern chicks-superb. Some Tern chicks were to small to ring but the total number is higher than last years which is great!  As always with ringing just a few images taken with the camera as it's more important to return the birds quickly and safely. 

Common Tern

Common Tern

Black-headed Gull

I used the 35mm lens again which is small and easy to use. All images set at ISO 400 f7.1 1/1600

Thanks to Paul R and Paul H.......

Common Buzzard chicks

I spent most of Sunday ringing Common Buzzard chicks as part of a project run by Paul R, along with a professional climber, his girlfriend and another trainee ringer. Four trees were climbed with one of them having to be abandoned due to it being unsafe. Five gorgeous chicks were ringed, two by myself with a G' ring. All chicks were in very good condition and all around the same age. Prey was found to be similar  in each nest and definitely no Pheasant was found, which will be good news for the concerned farmers around the country. I used my 35mm lens for the images below, bought for £35 from ebay!

ISO 800

ISO 1000


Add in my first found coughed up Buzzard pellet containing fur and beetles below one of the nests, it was a really good day out-thanks Paul.

Gull ringing

It was a early start on Saturday morning with the NTGG for some colour ringing of Black-headed Gull chicks under the guidance of Paul R. A small team of five were chosen to quickly process and minimise disturbance. With 50+ chicks ringed and none of us falling out of the boat the morning went very well.