Thursday 2nd May: It took some building but the Isle of May Bain Heligoland trap is complete. Members of the Isle of May Bird Observatory on the island have been working on it for four weeks and recently completed the task, making it fully operational (and it looks good!)
Heligoland traps are specialist catching traps designed to funnel small passerine migrants into a catching box for the purpose of bird ringing. The Bird Observatory which has been operating on the island since 1934 catch over 5,000 birds annually in these traps on the Isle of May.
We look forward to seeing it in action although we may need a few bushes to grow in the meantime. However despite the lack of vegetation it’s still catching and the first bird to be caught in the new trap was a Robin (ringed by Mark Oksien and scribed by Ian Darling – pictured above). Im sure plenty more to follow…
Isle of May National Nature Reserve 