Colour ringing the terns and gulls at Fleet Pond

Yesterday we went out onto Clearwater island to colour ring the Common Tern and Black Headed Gull Chicks. This is part of a wider project including birds from Moor Green and Hosehill lakes. Local bird watchers are very important in the project as any colour ring sightings are really valuable as then we can produce maps to show where they go to fish, how far they travel, how long they stick around at fleet pond after fledging and do they make it back next summer to breed on Clearwater island and join their parents in the colony? Common terns spend their winter in Africa and some can travel upto 8000 miles each way they are an amazing long distance migrant. Some of these common tern chicks could travel 16000 miles to South Africa and back before breeding next summer on Clearwater island now that's amazing!