Wedge-tailed Shearwater

Tuesday night we were up until after midnight capturing Wedge-tailed Shearwaters to read their bands if banded, put on a new band if unbanded and then mark them. They are captured on the ground in the dark by grabbing them or with a landing net. The marking involves painting a spot of nail polish on top of their head so we would not capture them again. The project is to help determine long term survival of adult birds. It is run by a researcher that is off the island but he set it up and we work the same 4 plots for as many evenings as it takes to catch and read bands on 600 birds. We have done about 300 since I came and the other 2 volunteers had done nearly 300 before I came. It is almost done so everyone is happy about that. These seabirds are about the size of a pigeon and have the heart of a lion. They don't make capture and banding easy.