Mission Accomplished!!!

On Thursday 3rd March a birder photographed a Turnstone carrying a Norwegian ring at Kinmel Bay, Rhyl in North Wales. Unfortunately not all of the code was photographed, so members of the SCAN ringing group quickly got together a team of ringers & helpers and this morning we set two nets on the beach, in the hope that we would catch the Norwegian ring bearing visitor!

Happenings were looking very good this morning as the high tide pushed good numbers of Sanderlings, along with small numbers of Dunlin up towards the beach. A number of Turnstone were 'twinkled' from another part of the bay, which beautifully placed them near the catching area. A bit more twinkling by Steve got the birds into the catching area, followed by his go-ahead for the catch to take place. 61 Sanderling, 17 Dunlin and 30 Turnstone were captured.... including the Norwegian ringed bird, which made all the effort worthwhile!

The 61 Sanderling was an added bonus, as apparently prior to this catch - the group had ringed 5 individuals, mainly due to Sanderling being uncommon in North Wales!

Thanks to Chris Bridge for the above photos.

A Touch of Pink!

This morning I was asked to help our aviculture team at WWT Martin Mere to round up the Chilean Flamingos, for their annual health check. The avics wanted me to take the biometric measurements of the birds, which consists of measuring both the skull & tarsus of each bird. So not technically wild bird ringing, I thought a bit of flamingo handling was too much of a good opportunity to miss out on & generally that Flamingo round ups are always good fun!

How to weigh a Flamingo!

Southport to Salisbury.

Thanks to Shayne Ford for getting in touch with a sighting of a colour ringed Coot. Shayne photographed the below bird on the River Avon in Salisbury City Centre, Wiltshire - this morning.

Orange BTO / White Orange was ringed at Southport Marine Lake on 11/12/2010 as an adult bird and this is the first sighting of it since ringing - 299km.. This is now the 2nd furthest mover from the cr-ringing project, the other bird - also ringed at Southport, was sighted in Cornwall in December 2010 - clocking up 390km.

Many thanks go to Shayne for reporting this & for the above photo!

More BHG...

Hand catching Black-headed Gulls has been quite difficult recently, mainly due to the milder weather & birds not being brave enough to venture near our catching hands! Yesterday at Preston Docks with Ciaran & Craig it appeared, at first, that we would be in for another bad day. However around lunch time more gulls were on the scavenge for free titbits from passers-by and soon after a bit of patience began to pay off, when Ciaran managed to catch 5 birds.

Last Few Days & a Goodbye…

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’’

North West Black Headed Gull Study.

Over the last few years we have ringed just under 1000 Black Headed Gulls across the North West. Despite our efforts we have received only a handful of local recoveries and two overseas recoveries: one to Poland and one to Germany. Even more disparaging is the amount of recoveries we have had from chicks ringed in the last two breeding seasons at Killington Reservoir in Cumbria; with just over 800 ringed and only one recovery of 25km!

With another trip to Killington planned for this summer and having had a successful winter hand catching adults, we decided it would be worthwhile to start using an additional mark aside from the standard BTO metal ring, both to increase recoveries and begin a colour ring study on Black Headed Gulls across the North West.

The main aims of the study are to look into:

• Dispersal from natal colony (Killington Reservoir)
• To study winter site fidelity (At all other sites, where adults can be caught)
• Interchange between study sites.
• Longevity
• To document general movements within the UK & abroad.

In addition to a metal ring on the right leg, we will place dark blue darvics on the left leg, each with a different code which will make each bird identifiable as an individual.

The Colour Scheme will be as follows:

One Dark Blue Darvic on the left leg with White lettering and a four digit code.

All codes start with the number 2 followed by one letter and two numbers. E.G. 2A23

There will be an additional metal ring placed on the right leg.

There is also an email address printed on the ring which is bhgulls@gmail.com

All sightings should be sent to this address, this will make it easier for either myself or Kane to respond to the sightings as they will all be in one place!

The inspiration for the project came when we were driving around the county catching Coot to colour ring. It became obvious to us that the best sites for catching coot were also the best sites for catching or reading the rings of Black-headed gulls. So the colour ringing of Coot and gulls really are symbiotic studies!

Photo by Zac Hinchcliffe.

Also, at almost every site we went to there was a ringed Black- headed gull, with last year being a fantastic year for controls, but unfortunately none of our Killington birds! John Wells in the Cotswolds suggested that with the numbers of birds we were catching we should start using darvics as his group has great success with them. Having considered it ourselves after getting very little information back from nearly 1000 birds, we quickly got the project up and running!

We envisage the project to last for at least 5 years and it will hopefully not only increase the amount of recoveries we receive but also enable us to build a migration map for black headed gulls in the North West of England and learn more about the movements of these charismatic birds. So next time you’re out feeding the birds, keep an eye out for any birds with blue left legs and please send us your sightings

Ciaran Hatsell.

Rindle Road Ringing.

On a not so sunny Saturday morning, several of us met on Astley Moss SSSI for our last mist netting session at the site for the winter. Unfortunately there was quite a breeze whipping around & a slight drizzle, which nearly put an end to the mornings session. However it quickly dried up & the wind dropped slightly, which allowed us to carry on catching.

The mornings ringing produced totals of 10 Yellowhammer, 6 Tree Sparrow, 1 Willow Tit, 2 Great Tit, 2 Reed Bunting, 1 Chaffinch and 1 Greenfinch.

Due to the morning not being particularly busy, there was plenty of opportunity for the trainees in the group to practice extracting and processing birds.

For another account of the days activities please see Zac’s blog

Wader Weekend with SCAN.

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….

Caerlaverock Swan Catch.

This morning we all gathered in the hide that over looks the Whooper pond at Caerlaverock, for the 11am swan feed. It was obvious that we could potentially pull off a good catch, as the reserve warden – Emma went out to do the feed, there were around 200 Whooper Swans, amongst other wildfowl eagerly awaiting their elevenses!

One of the great things to experience at a Caerlaverock catch is seeing the actual catch take place. Whereas at other centres we are often hidden and don’t see the birds until we run into the pipe, to help bring the catch under control.

As Emma headed up the swan pipe the birds followed as they routinely do three times a day, every day and we waited until the catch organiser felt that we had enough birds to cope with and then……. 3, 2, 1 Brian released the door & made a catch.

The above photo is during the initial drive when we form a human line in the water, to try and get most of the birds to the top of the pipe. We successfully managed to pen all the birds during the first drive, so another push wasn’t needed.

Now the birds have been slowly driven to the top of the pipe, we split them up into more smaller manageable groups.

The birds then wait in the pens, an area were only a few people have access to, this minimises the stress. Once the birds have been sexed, they get placed into jackets and brought to the processing tables.

Three ringing stations manned by Larry, Steve & Ciaran made sure that the processing line flowed nicely & ringing done quickly before the birds met Julia, Sheila & me on the biometric table. 

Sheila Stubbs (above) expertly scribed our measurements onto paper, often under pressure at times but provided a neat set of sheets ready for the data input team! Actually I must say it was great to be working alongside one of the people who helped kick-start my interest in Whooper Swans! Thanks Sheelz!

In total we caught 147 Whooper Swans of which 96 were new birds & 49 recaps. Also 70 Mute Swan, 6 Canada Geese & 1 Wigeon managed to get caught, making this one of Caerlaverock’s biggest swan catches!

Equipment all packed up it was time for a cuppa & bite to eat after a very successful catch. As the centre closed down & the Slimbridge team headed back south, I stayed up at Caerlaverock for the weekend. This was to help Sheila in sorting out the ringed families, something that can only be done by intensively watching the birds after the swan catch.

It was somewhat encouraging to see that the day after, perhaps with a little hesitation, the birds were back up the pipe, feeding as usual and seemingly unfazed by yesterday’s operation.

Both birds underneath the red arrow were caught in the swan catch and feeding in the pipe the day after!

Martin Mere Swan Catch.

Up bright & early this morning for the annual round-up of Whooper Swans at WWT Martin Mere. Despite the weather not looking to great at the start of the week, we couldn't have asked for a better day - as the swan catch went ahead under blue skies & shining sun!!

The team gathered for the 8am swan feed & after a small delay due to ducks not entering the pipe, the door was released capturing 76 Whooper Swans, 4 Greylag & 77 Duck - Mallard, Pochard, Pintail, Wigeon, Shelduck and 3 Coot.

Whilst we were waiting for the duck to enter the pipe, there were around 200 Whooper Swans up there! Too many for a catch, so while we waited for some duck, this allowed some of the swans to exit the pipe, and leave us with a manageable number.

Thanks to all involved for making today's catch run very smoothly. Also thanks to our scribe for the day - Estelle Walsh - smashing job!

We're now at WWT Caerlaverock on the Solway Firth, preparing for another swan catch tomorrow.