We've just put an order in for 500 G rings & 100's of colour rings - ready for this winter's Coot catching season! So along with Craig & Ciaran we decided to get back into the swing of things today & test our reflexes for catching Coot! But before this we headed to Doffcocker Lodge in Bolton to check on the birds there & was surprised to find Red, BTO, Red Black - yet another Southport colour ringed Coot! <36km ESE to Doffcocker>
We then paid a visit to Crompton Lodges, where upon arriving we soon realised we wouldn't be catching much! The whole place was packed out with families enjoying feeding the ducks in the Bank Holiday sun. So the birds were pretty much full & loafing (excuse the pun!) around on the water. We decided we would try some ring reading.
Let's cast our minds back to this post. Yesterday I was in Stoke-on-Trent & decided to call into Westport Lake to see whether I could see cr-ringed Coot - White, BTO, Dark Blue, Pink. I searched through a flock of around 120 birds but to no avail! So I left pondering what had happened to this bird. Imagine my surprise when we saw it back at Crompton Lodges this afternoon!28/02/2010 - Crompton Lodges
09/03/2010 - Westport Lake - 60km.
I'm really glad all the time & effort going into colour marking these birds, is beginning to pay off. Hopefully more ringing of this species, will help us to get to grips with it's movements.
Onto other things - Me & Steve met on Sunday evening to try the Swallow roost again. 84 new birds ringed, now taking the total to over 300 birds caught at the roost this year.
And I've received some information on the Swedish ringed Black Headed Gull - that I saw at Pennington Flash last week.
Ringed on 14/03/2003 as an adult at Pildammsparken, Malmo & seen on 19/11/2007 at Pennington Flash also.
View Black Headed Gull - 6407062 in a larger map