Little Egrets, Herons and Cormorants.

We went back to the colonies recently to ring more of the tree nesting Cormorants & Little Egrets. On our last trip we found an accessible Herons nest with chicks to small to ring so were hopeful they'd be big enough on our return.

All the cormorants are colour ringed with an orange darvic - we use green darvics on Puffin Island. It was interesting to compare the two colonies. The ones on Puffin are cliff nesting so we can ring quite well developed young whereas with the tree nesting ones they ring slightly smaller chicks as they don't want to risk the bigger ones jumping out the nests prematurely!

The weather was hot and humid, following the thunder storms the previous night, and the smell of ammonia form the guano was all pervading and blocked out any thing else! The arm moist air meant the Horseflies were out in force - wearing waterproof trousers and a long sleeved top was akin to some kind of medieval torture. I certainly sweated off some weight! 

Young cormorants squirt poo incredible distances and walking beneath the trees definitely required a hat! They also regurgitate semi-digested fish over you and it was interesting to note that number of the fish were freshwater species - despite the colonies proximity to the Mersey estuary. We definitely found at least one Perch! 

Darvic ringed cormorants from a previous trip. 

Paul fitting a darvic by opening it up until the two edges touch and then slipping it over the foot & 'clicking' shut.

We went back to a few Little Egrets where, again,  the young were to small to ring last week but should have been a good size. One nest was unfortunately predated. Little Egrets have the same projectile poo and regurgitating habits as Cormorants and it appears their diet consists mainly of shrimps! 

Brood of Little Egrets ready for ringing

I'd never ringed Little Egret before last week so it was a real treat to get to ring a few more today. I'd never ringed Heron either so was surprised to find they have green skin like the Little Egrets. Not such a vivid green though. Like the Egrets they're adept at clambering through the branches surrounding their nests.

I was a rare privilege to ring these Herons as they're the first ones ringed at the site for 15 years! 

Another great day and I got home around 16.00 and immediately stuck all my cloths on a hot wash cycle!