Environmental volunteers celebrate their first slender-billed gull

2 September 2010, Murcia (Spain). A total of 40 volunteers from various backgrounds participated in a banding activity organized by the Environmental Volunteer Program in Protected Areas last June at the Regional Park of San Pedro del Pinatar (Murcia).

This pioneering and important activity by the Hydrobates Voluntary Action Project had a special collaboration with the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Murcia, the Naturalistic Association of Southeast Spain, the Spanish Salt Works Limited, technicians and staff of the Natural Protected Area, and the General Directorate of Natural Heritage and Biodiversity.

Thanks to the cooperation of all volunteers organized in small groups, the capture and banding of 33 specimens of Slender-billed gull (Larus genei), 10 specimens of Common Tern (Sterna hirundo), one Gull-bill Tern (Gelochelidon nilotica) and 49 specimens of Sandwich Tern (Sterna sandvicensis) was carried out.

The Hydrobates Action Project, which has a total of 60 volunteers, usually works on the coast and islands of the Mediterranean Sea in the Environmental Volunteer Programme in Protected areas of the Region of Murcia. The volunteers, guided by a professional bird bander, held several ringing sessions throughout the year (both day and night) at seabird breeding colonies at Hormigas Islands, Isla de las Palomas, Isla de Mazarrón and Isla Cueva de Lobos, allowing them to gather valuable population and habitat data in the coastal area and islands of Murcia.

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