Puffins again

Today we headed to Skokholm with Pembrokeshire Ringing Group to continue the Puffin colour ringing research project started last year for the Edward Grey Institute, Oxford University.

 Once again we set a net carefully in the Crab Bay Puffin colony.

 

It was a great team effort in the sun - here the admin talk and colour rings being sorted before starting -

 Each bird had a BTO ring and 3 colour rings. Four retraps from last year were also caught.

Jerry and Will fitting a ring

Will releasing a ringed Puffin

It only took a couple of hours to catch the 60 birds required. After that number of extractions it was quite a relief to be holding numbers 59 and 60 before our hands suffered anymore! That bill can inflict a lot of pain.

The Puffins are very tolerant of our presence and readily return to their burrows as soon as the net is taken down.

A documentary is being made for TV about the wildlife and work on Skokholm. We'll let you know when to watch us in action!