Start of new season

Finally the day has come! The start of new cannon netting season! After the rain last week we managed to go.

We arrived few minutes before 7 and went straight to put the net. After Zec and I decided where we'll put the net we heard the sound of some big machine. It was guys with compactor and bulldozers. I didn't know what to do. We use to go on Sunday because it was quiet and no one was working. Well, last few months they started to work on Sunday morning to remove the garbage that came on Saturday afternoon and night.
It sounded very promising, finally working with compactor on Jakuševec:)

It was very foggy so we didn't see the whole tip but agreed with compactor driver where to put the net and where they will put a waste for us.

After setting the net we waited for compactor to come.

First catch was at around 10 and was very quick after compactor left because I saw one 1st winter HG.

But of course it flew awayand we got some 20 YLGs and 1 BHG. While I was ringing with Lorena, Zec and rest of the crew reset the net.

 I wasn't finished with ringing yet and the net was reset and gulls started landing.. We had an adult LBBG at the end of catching area but of course it didn't came closer, it just disappeared .  Second catch was around 40 birds, still most big gulls.. We had one YLG that was ringed on Croatian caost as pullus(Ringed on May 31st 2007 as pullus near island of Krk))

 Again Zec and Toni did the quick reset and I again didn't finished all the ringing before birds started landing. Last catch was much better with big number of small gulls.

All in all 62 BHG and 60 big gulls, mostly YLGs, 1 Caspian and few I'm not sure of the species.

All together it is ok for opening.. Hope it will be better in future :)

Now few of those interesting ones.
656H- 1w strange mich

597H second winter mich

595H 3w mich

596H 1w mich

615H 1w mich

651H 2w cach

That's all for now:) Iwould like to thank Lejla for photos!

Poreč cannon netting

Last week Lori, Boris,Basrek, Zec and i were in Poreč. We planed to cannon net gulls on Poreč landfill.
First day we put the net around 8 but were able to take a catch at 11. It looked really nice. It was by far shoot with biggest number of big gulls in it. It was around 80 YLGs but as there were only 5 of us some of it managed to escape so we end up with 64 YLGs ringed.

I was really excited about second day for two reasons. First one was finally meeting Marco Basso and second was that i touhgt we'll have two good catches and end up with maybe 200 more gulls ringed.
I did meet Marco but on the other hand gulls didn't landed at all on the tip untill 1305!!! I never saw anything like that!! Marco went home at 12:50!! Poor guy didn't even saw gulls onthe tip nor cannon net being fired!!
We tought of taking a cacth but then at 1320 all the gulls took off and didn't return!! Zero gulls ringed!!
Third day was our last chance to ring something. First gulls arrived on the tip at 1120 and we took a catch 3 minutes later:) I really didn't want to risk ringing zero again.It was a small catch of 26 YLGs.. After that we packed our stuff and went back to Zagreb.

Today i found out that we have a first recovery from this session. One YLG was found near Venice :)

This one was ringed as a chick in 2003 in colony few km fom the tip. We replaced aluminium ring with steel one and added colour ring.

Same bird as above 

This one had a bit pinkish legs and big white spot on P9 but I think it's ok for YLG..

Same bird as above

New ringer in our team. Basrek passed ringing exam few days ago..

placement of the net and the car from which we fire.

Basrek while not ringing :)

Nice photo

Not nice photo

I think the biggest problem was that there are no more tourists in Poreč and it was really less comunal waste comming.. I think We should go there in September next year when there are still tourists. I expected much more BHGs on the tip.. There were only maybe 20 of them..

Today I went to Jakusevec to see if there are enough gulls to start a season.. I think that the time has come! :) There are few thousand  gulls there:)

Serbian landfills

Last week I was in Serbia and got opportunity to go to Novi Sad and Belgrade rubbish tip.

Novi Sad is not that big so the tip isn't big and there were not many gulls present. Few hundreds at most.We managed to read 3 Croatian YLGs with yellow rings, 1 BHG with white ring and 1 hungarian YLG.

The star of the week was Belgrade dump :) It is huge and beautiful!! It reminds me of North Thames tips with it's size. And gulls .. It was second part of October and it was already more than 10 000 gulls there:) Last winter they counted more than 60 000 wintering BHGs.. I suppose there  are also few tens of thousands of big gulls.. I think that this place deserves (at least) one cannon netting session (lasting at least a week) per year. I'll do my best to help organize something like that in January next year.

and here are some photos:

first GBBG for Serbia :)

Dragan and marinus in the back

YLG ringed in Croatia in 1999 :)

 At the end i  would like to thank Dragan, Marko and Strahinja for everything!!

I'm in Porec at the moment preparing to go on the tip with big net :) more later..