Canna Shearwaters

Had a walk around the western end of Canna with Bob Swann and two of his ringing group mates, Martin Carthy, and Ronnie (?). A brilliant day, if somewhat hot.

The great news is that the old Manx Shearwater colony at The Nunnery, that was completely wiped out when the island was infested with rats, have started to return. We found two occupied burrows, one with a pair present, the other with a single bird which Bob managed to extract for me to ring. This is really exciting news, and is the first step towards this colony becoming re-established again. The other thing to note with regard to this colony is that we only walked across the rough slopes at one level, so there could easily be more than the two occupied burrows we found.

Bob also managed to hook a Fulmar, albeit an already-ringed one. He's sure that this bird is quite old, as he can't remember using that ring string for a number of years.

Hopefully Bob will be able to provide original ringing data for the Fulmar, and will send though pictures of my first Manxie. I'll post details on here in due course - now updated!

Other birds of interest where a number of other nests of seabirds recorded, including Shag, Fulmar, Common Gull, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Great Black-Backed Gull, Herring Gull, and Oystercatcher.

Also of note, on the northern side of the island at Garrisdale was a single Whitethroat singing, and a single Spotted Flycatcher.