Yesterday I took the biggest ever cannon netting team in Croatia and the seven of us went to Jakuševec to start a cannon netting season with new net. It was pretty foggy and I was afraid if there will be any gulls on the tip. After some troubles with entrance, we managed to agree the place on the tip where we'll put the net. Funny thing was that the guy that was in charge of the tip put two truck loads to separate us from the rest of the tip and so that the other trucks wouldn't come there :) well done!
It took us some 45 minutes to set the net and then it was just a question if the compactor driver will do his part well..
He did very good job! it looked like when I was in England with North Thames Gull Group. Zec and I were looking at the net. He was checking the safety zone and I was waiting for enough gulls and a window to put the net trough.. After a minute or so gulls started to land in front of the net. It looked very promising but somehow they didn't get concentrated enough so after some 10 minute we decided to take a catch. It was not so many gulls :( but the net spread very very nice. It was around 40 gulls. When we extracted all the birds we started with ringing and taking samples.
After an hour or so there were only few birds left so Vedran finished ringing and Zec, Sven and I started setting the net for the second catch. The compactor driver was even better this time. It's unbelievable what they can do with that huge vehicle and how precise can they be! Second catch was around 50 birds with a dessert at the end an adult Caspian Gull.
The funny thing about this big net and working with compactor is that we got much more big gulls. Total score was 53 BHG, 28 YLG, 1 Caspian and 3 I'm not sure of the species (all comments are welcome). I think we'll get much bigger catches in weeks to come. There are still only 2 or 3 thousands gulls on the rubbish tip and these numbers should grow very fast in near future and reach some 15000 which is normal for winter. I think the gulls will be much concentrated then.
We set the next catch for next Saturday.
And at the end those mistery gulls :)
379H
347H It was huge one, with very pinky legs.
and 393H
It took us some 45 minutes to set the net and then it was just a question if the compactor driver will do his part well..
After an hour or so there were only few birds left so Vedran finished ringing and Zec, Sven and I started setting the net for the second catch. The compactor driver was even better this time. It's unbelievable what they can do with that huge vehicle and how precise can they be! Second catch was around 50 birds with a dessert at the end an adult Caspian Gull.
Caspian and Yellow-legged
 |
| Again two of them |
We set the next catch for next Saturday.
And at the end those mistery gulls :)
379H
347H It was huge one, with very pinky legs.
and 393H
Hi Luka:
ReplyDelete1CY orange 393H: probably 1CY michahellis: note difference in inner primaries when compared to 347H and 379H, pattern on new scapulars with bold anchors and 'clean' proximal rectrices, lacking spots and barrings, especially on outer rectrices.
Hi Luka:
ReplyDeleteOrange 347H, probably 1CY cachinnans. Note: not much streaking on head, new grey scapulars showing just a dark shaft streak, pale brown-grey tone to plumage, Venetian blind effect on inner primaries, simple pattern on (inner) greater coverts, apical spots on outerwebs of inner primaries, broad tail-band of evenly width towards outer rectrices and multiple subterminal bands on outerweb of R6.
Hi Luka:
ReplyDeleteOrange 379H, difficult bird but probably also cachinnans. Note strong resemblance to michahellis: relaively extensive streaking on head for cachinnans, but also note new grey scapulars showing just a dark shaft streak, Venetian blind effect on inner primaries, and simple pattern on (inner) greater coverts. White tipped bill commonly seen in michahellis and lack of apical spots on outerwebs of inner primaries also more typical for michahellis.