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Michael Colley

My Name is Michael Colley, I am an ornithologist from Kartong in The Gambia, I am a member of the Joula tribe and a practising Christian. I attended St Martin's Basic School and Nasiru Senior Secondary School before joining the Gambian Armed Forces between 2010-2018. During that time I did some technical courses including a HND in engineering. I started working and studying at the Kartong Bird Observatory (KBO) in 2013 and, in 2020, I was awarded a C-permit for bird ringing from the British Trust for Ornithology in the UK. Currently, I am a Research Assistant at KBO and in charge of the weekly ringing sessions we run at the Observatory. I am in the process of training to use a cannon net which covers setting of the net and safely timing the fire. The species we catch with the cannon net are White-backed Vultures, Eurasian Griffon Vultures, Palm-nut Vultures and Hooded Vultures. I carry out the wing tagging of vultures we catch during the ringing expeditions. The work I undertake at the observatory includes bird guiding, Nightingale transects, colour-ring reading and sampling blood, saliva and feathers for various research projects. Last year I was in Denmark for internship at Skagen Bird Observatory and I had T permit. I do Bird Guiding in The Gambia.