I was back in Bangor this weekend with Chris to take part in SCAN ringing group’s last cannon net weekend of the winter. The weekends activities kicked off on Saturday morning, where we met before dawn at Llanfairfechan, aiming to catch the priority species being Dunlin & Redshank.
Two teams quickly got to work in setting three nets, before it was time for the high tide to take it’s role in the operation, by pushing the birds closer to the nets. A bit of expert twinkling by Richard, Chris & Rachel, helped to push more birds into the catching area.
Nicely coordinated by Steve, who was in constant radio contact with the twinklers, they pulled of a nice mixed catch of Redshank (27) and Dunlin (68). A good number of helpers & ringers ensured the catch was quickly brought under control & birds taken out of the net and away ready to be processed.
Soon after more Redshank landed perfectly in front of the other cannon net and we made another catch of 47 Redshank, bringing this sessions total to 74 Redshank & 68 Dunlin.
Once all the birds had been extracted from the nets and placed in holding pens, ringing & biometric teams were organised & ringing commenced.
Richard & Dave demonstrating bird ringing to birders & members of the public…
Once all the ringing had been completed, we packed up & arranged to meet back onsite at 7pm for an evening of mist netting in the shallow lagoons. We erected 7 nets under a clear & beautiful nights sky and throughout the evening we caught 28 Redshank, 2 Dunlin & a very smart Greenshank. Packing up at 00:00 we arranged to meet at 8am to set nets in Beaumaris – catching 4 Ringed Plover & 1 Dunlin.
Many thanks as always to Steve & the team for such an enjoyable weekend….
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