Shag ringing on Midland Island

At last the wind dropped enough yesterday for a trip to Midland Island near Skomer to ring Shags. A very enjoyable evening away from the Teifi with Pembs RG and four girls from Skomer.
Steve teaching Becky the knack of ringing a Shag without being stabbed by its needle like bill.
Some of the Shags nest in crevices in the cliff so a bit of scrambling over the rocks is needed to get to the nest.
Ringing a quite large Shag. No chance of keeping clean on this trip!
Not only Shags were ringed. There were a few Great black-backed gulls of the right age too. Odd to find out that Becky from Leicestershire, doing the ringing here has the same trainer, Mick, who trained Richard 30 years ago!
As it got darker it was lovely to watch thousands of seabirds returning to Skomer for the night.
A total of 70 Shag were ringed with good productivity of 2.89 per nest.
Thanks to Steve S for organising the trip and to Sash for the use of his boat.