Quiet week!

Finally after all the gadding about I've been doing over the winter - my work load has caught up, so I've been knuckling down to get some work done! So that's why the blog is a little quiet at the moment. I have been allowed out to play though (can't all be work!) and have done a bit of ringing this week - mainly at the Shakerley feeding station but also a few Coots caught too.

Totals (recaps in brackets)

Coot -4 (2)

Greenfinch - 1

Redpoll - 1

Long Tailed Tit (2)

Bullfinch - 7 (6)

Goldfinch - 3

Chaffinch - 5

Reed Bunting - 1

Robin - 1

One control this week - a Danish Black Headed Gull - again in a Manchester park.

A batch of recoveries came through to Steve this week. The most interesting one is of a Mute Swan that was found dead under power lines in Dalton-in-furness. Sadly this bird met it's end at the grand age of 21 years old! Having first been caught and ringed at Fleetwood Marine Lake on 30/12/1988 as a cygnet male. The bird was darvic ringed - and therefore allowed people to report it's whereabouts to Steve and Wes.

Below is part of it's history.

30/12/1988 - Fleetwood Marine Lake - 0 km

30/01/1989 - Cavendish Dock, Barrow-in-furness - 22km

23/09/1989 - Fleetwood Marine Lake

03/02/1990 - Stanley Park, Blackpool - 12km

18/03/1990 - Fleetwood Marine Lake

18/07/1990 - Pearsons Flash, Wigan - 50km

29/07/1990 - Horrocks Flash, Wigan - 53km

16/09/1990 - Turners Flash, Wigan - 52km

17/11/1990 - Amberswood, Hindley, Wigan - 52km

06/01/1991 - Fleetwood Marine Lake -

15/06/1991 - RSPB Hodbarrow, Cumbria - 33km

13/01/1993 - Fleetwood Marine Lake -

24/06/1997 - Roanhead, Barrow-in-furness - 29km

23/11/1997 - Fleetwood Marine Lake

10/08/1998 - Ormsgill Res, Barrow-in-furness - 25km

20/11/1998 - Roanhead, Barrow-in-furness - 29km

22/07/1999 - Cavendish Dock, Barrow-in-furness - 22km

01/12/2009 - Dalton-in-furness - 29km - Dead - 7668 days.

So the above is proof that Mute Swan do actually move around, more often than we think. The above information would not have been collated if the bird had not been given a darvic ring. Darvic rings greatly improve the information we receive on bird movements. All colour ringing projects rely heavily on observations of colour ringed birds and these sightings can be sent to http://www.ring.ac/

Certainly one bird ringer has been busy reading darvic rings this week! Andy Jowett, whilst working in Ireland managed to read several darvics on Whooper Swans in a flock in Northen Ireland. Andy texted me the sightings, which were then added to the database and ringing information was then texted back to Andy, in the field! He also managed to read two Greylags that carried neck collars. One being ringed in Iceland and the other in the Highlands.

On the subject of colour rings - good numbers of sightings of colour ringed Coot have been received this week. Some interesting ones which I'll blog about in a later post.

Ringing at the reedbed.

Met up with Steve, Virgini, Craig and Chris this evening down at our local reedbed in Worsley (Grt Manchester). Today has been very hot and at around 5pm ish a ''tropical'' storm passed over. By 5:30pm the rain had stopped allowing us to put 5 nets up in very humid and sticky conditions!

However we were rewarded with a nice little total of 33 birds caught.

Reed Warbler - 6 new + 1 recap
Sedge Warbler - 3
Chiffchaff - 1
Willow Warbler - 1
Robin - 1
Great Tit - 1
Black Bird - 1
House Sparrow - 1
Reed Bunting - 4
Dunnock - 2
Goldfinch - 2
Stonechat - 1
Swallow - 5
Sand Martin - 3

A mixed bag.

Another good week, despite the best efforts of the weather! 100 new birds ringed, the majority being Blue and Great Tit chicks.

Total

Long Tailed Tit - 1

Great Tit - 23

Blue Tit - 42

Reed Bunting - 5

Sedge Warbler - 1

Chaffinch - 5

Greenfinch - 6

Dunnock - 1

Starling - 9

Blackbird - 1

Stock Dove - 2

House Martin - 4

Sedge Warbler

Adult Reed Bunting
Reed Bunting chicks.

Greenfinch chicks

Long Tailed Tit


House Martin

Thanks to Craig Brookes, Ciaran Hatsall and Chris Bridge for their help this week. And well done to Ciaran (below) for finding his first Reed Bunting nest :-)