An old bird...

Last week, our long-standing ringer, Professor David Norman, and his team visited Gronant to ring some adult birds. Efforts have been stepped up this season to ring more adults and hopefully catch a few that were ringed as chicks to find out their age whilst adding colour-rings to all caught birds so we can re-sight them in the field without the need to catch them again. The first we caught in the session transpired to be something a bit little special! See below:

Today at @GronantTerns we caught a Little Tern that I had #ringed as a chick there on 8 July 1993. At almost 25 years, this appears to be the oldest Little Tern ever recorded anywhere. Not too old, though: its chicks hatched this afternoon! #longevity #ornithology @_BTO @_EURING pic.twitter.com/61zx2o4zxk

— David Norman (@ProfDavidNorman) 21 June 2018

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In other news, we are happy to announce plenty of birds are re-laying after losing their nests in the storm on June 14th. We are up to 50 new nests in the last few days with more coming every day. This will really extend our season and give longer to enjoy and study the birds. If these nests can hatch and go on to fledge they still have the possibility of a good breeding season, but things really need to go their way this time as there's no time for a third attempt. Onwards and upwards.

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