North Thames Gull GroupStudying the Gulls of Essex Landfill Tips

25th May 2010

Mark Grantham had arrived early and made good use of the time reading 106 different individual colour rings on the tip and Chouet beach. The rest of the team from the UK arrived throughout the day and assembled the kit ready for the next few days catching attempts.

26th May 2010

The worst start possible with heavy rain and blustery conditions. A visit to the tip was made by Paul Veron and Paul Roper and they decided to place a load of waste either ready for the next day or if there was a chance in the afternoon to attempt one small catch. However, the weather did not improve and the day was reduced to only reading colour rings and drinking lots of tea! The Guernsey team were stood down and the forecast for Thursday looked much better. In total 85 individual colour rings were read - mostly on the tip and a few whilst having a quick drive around the island.

27th May 2010

Catch 1

The weather was much better and team assembled much more hopeful than the previous day. We took the decision to ditch the load of waste dumped in the position for yesterday as there was a much better position further round and the very light wind had changed direction from the day before meaning this second area a much better prospect. Setting was simple and we set along the base of a small earth bank firing at the quarry cliff. There were no roads or buildings in the firing line so this looked almost perfect. We obtained a load of waste and asked the compactor driver to come and flatten it. Birds were quickly down and in good numbers. The other good thing was that the temperature was quite low and I was happy to take a reasonably size catch. When it was safe a catch was taken which we estimated to be about 250 birds. Given this was a large catch and although smoothly and quickly processed it was lunch time before we were able to get the net set again and have enough sacks ready for a second catch.

Catch 2

It was still a very cool day, overcast with a very light breeze. Once set we got the compactor driver to stir things up a bit again and we soon had a very good number of gulls back down on the waste. Safety was very quickly available and a second catch was taken. This turned out to be bigger than the first catch and we eventually ran out of sacks with about 40 birds still under the net. The decision was made to ring these birds direct from the net and not to process them. This soon cleared the net and processing and colour ringing of the rest of the catch got underway. On completion of the processing it was discovered this catch was much bigger than the first one (no wonder we had run out of sacks, as we only had 300!).

28th May 2010

Catch 1

The wind was a little stronger and had swung round a bit and was running along the net rather than from behind it. It was decided to set in the same place hoping that the wind would not cause too much of a problem as it was still fairly light. We took the brave step of clearing most of the waste from the catching area in an attempt to encourage more Lesser Black-backed Gulls and less Herring Gulls into the catching area. This seemed to work and the first catch consisted of 93 gulls.

Catch 2

For the second catch the wind had picked up a bit but we used the same line and net set. Birds settled quickly and we were able to fire fairly soon. However, the net held up a bit as the wind managed to gust and just get underneath as we fired and a few birds mainly Lesser Black-backed Gulls beat the net out. Nevertheless, it was still a reasonable catch of 85 gulls.

Catch 3

Due to the net hanging we changed the angle and try and get the wind a bit more behind the net for the third catch. Because it was a bit warmer than the previous day, smaller catches were really preferable. Re-setting the net took a little while to sort out but whilst most people processed birds a small team re-set the net line in a slightly different place. We hoped this would bring the net down more quickly. The compactor driver Andy came up and helped prepare the catching area by scraping out some of the waste and freshening up the catching area. This soon attracted more birds down and after a short wait for safety a third catch was taken, consisting of 98 gulls.

Catch 4

As there was still time we decided to re-set for a fourth attempt, particularly as the forecast of the next day was not good. By now it was getting a little warm and the time was getting on - we had to consider whether we could get a fourth catch in and process it in time to vacate the tip by 4pm. This time, for the first time in two days birds did not come straight back on to the waste. However, Andy the compactor driver was not going to give up! His dogged persistence and bringing up a scoop of waste from the bottom tip eventually got birds back into the catching area with only minutes to spare before the cut off time of 2:30pm to take a last catch. We were keen to try and get the fourth catch in as the weather was not forecast to be very good for the next day. So just as it got to 2:30pm a small window of safety presented itself and we were able to take a final catch for the day. This turned out to be the best catch with proportionally more Lesser Black-backed Gulls in this one than any other catch. The weather was now getting a little bit warm and we had run out of space under the shade after extracting about 80 birds. We decided to ring and release at the net the remainder of the Herring Gulls and also ended up releasing about 15 birds unringed due to time and the need to reduce any risk of heat stress to the last few birds under the net.

Throughout the day a few of the team had been trying hard to break the day record for colour ring sightings. On arrival back at the house this seemed to have been achieved. However, on checking there were ten duplicates and the total was soon reduced to below the previous best. The final number for the day though was still an impressive 121 different individual colour ring sightings.

29th May 2010

As predicted the weather was right on cue with showers and blustery conditions at dawn with the first heavy shower as we awoke at 05:30am. It soon became apparent that we were not going to be able to attempt a catch as the weather would not clear up in time and the tip would be closing early. A small team went and cleared down the site and removed the rest of the kit from the tip. There were a total of 4 colour ring sightings today.

Summary

Over the four possible days we were only able to catch on two days but the final total of 1008 birds was an excellent total and meant the trip achieved all the objectives and more with the Guernsey Seabird Team again delighted with the results.

Thanks to Paul Veron for organising the trip and undertaking all the hard work to gain access to the tip and arrange a great team to work with. Thanks must also go to the tip operators at Chouet who were fantastically helpful and without their co-operation these types of operation are just not possible.