We were delighted to recently receive a box from Migrate Technology containing 25 geolocators, generously donated by Society members! Chris informed us that the next step is to fix each geolocator to a plastic hand-made leg-ring, a tiny cable tie and some rubber self-amalgamating tape to prevent them from slipping.
The first egg date of the Farne Island Arctic Terns is usually between 12-15 May each year, with egg hatching starting from 10-12 June. We will switch on the geolocators a few days before going out to the Islands when the birds are well settled on their nests.
We aim to find the birds we marked in 2015, identified from their numbered coloured rings, and fit them each with a new geolocator. Hopefully Chris will manage to catch the six that slipped away last year, so we can recover some additional loggers and download some more data!
Further updates to follow as the project progresses.