What a week! With catching conditions good for catching Coot and Tufted Duck throughout the week, both myself and Steve have been out on most days catching the above species. With ice covering most of the major ponds / lakes - most of the birds moved onto the bigger waters, but now with the thaw setting in, these birds are moving on.We've never had such a good week for catching Coot and Tufted Duck but it's not all been fun - bites and scratches covering our hands, getting sore/chapped knees and having my mother on my back for ''coming home again covered in Coot mess'' - I suppose it's all part of the job!
We end the week on 132 new Coot + 6 recaps caught & 56 new Tufted Duck + 3 controls.
Ducks ready to be crated up before ringing.
Today I had a nice morning out with Seumus, Craig and Ian of Fylde Ringing Group. We spent a few hours catching Coot and Tufted Duck in Stanley Park, Blackpool. It was great to recapture or control (in Seumus's case) one of my Coots from Southport Marine Lake that I ringed in 2007 - it's now sporting nice bright colour rings
Meanwhile back at home two Moorhens have been feeding in the garden - will they find the potter traps?!.....
What a total well done mate 56 Tufties
ReplyDeleteknow what you mean about the Knees mine still sore from last tuesday, also nice to see that Z3G the Whooper you ringed at Bowness last summer is moving about the country, well worth all the effort after all.