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News Eastbourne Forest Rangers (EFR) Little Penguin (Korora) Fluttering Shearwater Volunteers - Two Events In One! Nature Connection Videos End of Translocation Stage Pub Crawling Chick Fond Farewells The Big Clean-Up Be In To Win Video of Fluttering Shearwater Chick Exercising!! Visits to Makaro and Mokopuna Islands A Perfect Rainbow!! WOW, what a night!!! - December 2015 The chick has fledged - January 2016 Mutton birds on Matiu/Somes Island Gull Banding 2015 – 2016 Visit to Makaro Island – November 2016 Diving Petrel on Matiu/Somes Island 2016/17 fluttering shearwater breeding season ends
What with the weather not playing its part and some key people not being available, we still managed to have two separate groups of volunteers doing what they could to band as many Black-backed Gull chicks as possible.
The first group was lead by Graeme Taylor and ably assisted by Marti Armengolicus, Sally Bain, Carol Stone and her three young helpers. They managed to do most of the east coast of Matiu/Somes Island on the 23rd December. They managed to catch and band 12 chicks. Several more chicks were seen high up on the cliffs but were left unbanded due to safety reasons.
Shane Cotter and his party of Georgia and Kieran Cotter with Nadine Tupp, checked the west coast on the 27th December. They caught and banded 16 chicks with several others making their way out to sea.
They also saw and photographed 3 Variable Oystercatcher chicks as well as a large stingray sunbathing in shallow water in Cable Bay.
It was an effort to catch and band these 28 chicks. Rod Sutherland talks about the days when MAF ran the island and they use to catch and band 300 chicks and there would be lots left. With bush covering much of the island now, the gulls are restricted to around the summit and the coast.