Black-head to the rescue! - 25th November 2011

Kane and Gillian came to stay at mine in Bangor for the weekends SCAN session in Bangor. Friday night saw Kane catch a single Black-headed Gull in Bangor Harbour, which was Brucey's first ever gull.
Arriving in Bangor harbour at 06.20 this morning, we met up with the SCAN ringing group with the aim to catch Shelduck in the sheltered bay of Bangor Town Beach. We set two nets and then were ready for the tide to come up at around 10/11am. Birds appeared in front of the net regularly but the tide line was still out of catching range. A Peregrine flew through the bay catching an adult Black-head and flushed everything! By the time the tide had essentially reached the net, no birds returned meaning that we had to call it a day and quickly rescue the net before it became rather damp!
Having to return to Preston, I joined Kane and Gillian in the car home via the beach at Arbergele. Here we read two metal-ringed Black-heads and I was able to get my hands on a lovely adult (photographed above) which was my first hand caught bird since the Killington trips back at the beginning of summer! They really are my favourite birds to catch, especially by hand!