Ringing and research

The lads and the ringing team, ringing adult Shags

Warden Jason Moss showing a family Puffin Cam on Staple Island

Wardens in action - both Zodiac boast coming in to land

Sunday 21st June comments:

Another glorious day, bringing lots of visitors and more importantly, more good weather for the growing chicks. The seabird ringing team lead by Dr Chris Redfern visited the islands today, helping to ring adult Shags, Kittiwakes and Puffins. The Farnes team supported the ringers and help ring a good number of nesting seabirds, which is all part of the valuable research on the islands. Research on the Farnes takes in many forms, from range finding, to mapping of seabeds, to collection of feather samples to ringing amongst plenty of others. The valuable data collected helps ensure we build a bigger picture of what is happening to our seabirds, not only on the Farnes, but the UK in general.

As well as the ringing, the Farnes obtained a new exciting bit of kit today - a small endoscope, complete with infra-red lighting, which enabled us to penetrate Puffin burrows to check the contents. The 'Puffin Cam' was an amazing addition, as we were able to show members of the public what was happening below the surface and we were able to check on the health of Puffin chicks (all doing well I'm glad to report). This bit of kit will be used extensively over the next few weeks so hopefully I'll get some good results to report.