Over the last several days Ciaran, Chris, Zac Hinchcliffe, Chris Piner and myself have been out & about ringing at a number of our sites.
Sunday (27th) saw us catching in Michael & Mary’s garden in Worsley, however at first it didn’t look too promising when looking out of the window as the rain fell hard. But several cups of tea later it cleared & passed over, allowing us to erect a single 30 foot net in front of their feeders.
In total 20 birds were captured consisting of 13 new & 7 recaptures. Six more new Redpoll added to the ever increasing total list, now standing at 76 new birds for Michael & Mary’s garden. The Common (Mealy) Redpoll was also recaptured. Four Siskin also put an appearance in at the feeders, resulting in one being caught – the first to be ringed in the garden. Great Spotted Woodpecker, House Sparrow, Starling and Goldfinch also being captured.
Two sessions (28th & 02nd) at Shakerley yielded 49 birds of which 35 were new, 13 recaptures & one control. The control was of a Reed Bunting carrying ring – L141944.
All the usual species were caught at Shakerley, however it was nice to catch Redwing, Lesser Redpoll and Reed Bunting in greater numbers than we normally do at this site.
Photo – Zac Hinchcliffe.
March 1st saw us at Bowness-on-Windermere, where we caught our first Black-headed Gull, for the start of a new project. Just four unringed Canada geese were present at Bowness, which were soon caught and now have new shiny rings. One each of Greylag goose, Mallard and Common Gull joined the days totals. Having some spare time on our hands, allowed us to capture 53 Mute Swan to check on the conditions of their rings, which later on returning back to IPMR also brought many controls to light.
Finally after our few days of ringing had come to an end & whilst most of the group were all together. It seemed only fitting that we should say good-bye to Ciaran, who in the next few days will be swapping Coot & Gulls for Puffin & Terns as he goes out to work on the Farne Islands for 8 months.
Over a meal in Manchester many words, memories & good byes were said & one thing is for sure we’re all going to miss him! (Getting emotional) lol - I’d like to say thanks to Ciaran for all his help over the last few months, for assisting the Coot project greatly, the many good laughs & for being the bestest mate ever!
‘‘Be well, do good work and keep in touch’’
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