One in few thousand!

July is a good month to tape-lure Storm Petrels and Shearwaters, and with the weather finally improving last night was our first opportunity to have a try. Not wanting to travel all the way to our usual netting site on Cilan Head near Abersoch, I thought I'd have a quick go just south of Aberystwyth. With several thousand shearwaters off Borth during the day at the moment it had to be a reasonable bet.

Several hours in the total number caught stood at 1 Manx Shearwater (above)!  Several others flew up to have a look at the net but there was no sign of any Storm Petrels - guess it is just a bit too far into the bay.

After ringing shearwaters are best left on the ground at the edge of the cliff to make their own decisions as to when to fly off.