Another Year ends and a new begins... In a some bird watchers diary this is a time to manically start a new list for everything, not me. It's a time to reflect on a fantastic years ringing with some fantastic people.
Highlights ringing wise:
January - Watching/Helping Kane Catch 20+ Tufted duck in one day at Southport as well as catching 30 or so Coot. (We thought we'd never get the same numbers in a day again... We were wrong).
Swan Catch at Martin Mere - Always a pleasure seeing Teal, Pochard, Wigeon and Whoopers "In the hand."
February - My first Cannon netting session; Heysham power station, over 600 Oystercatchers Caught and ringed (Amazing).
March and April - Ringing ( Or scribing) at Rossall Ringing sessions due to a broken hand, But I saw plenty of decent birds in the hand. Lots of Lesser Redpoll and one Common.
May - My first Grasshopper Warbler (tape Lured) followed by accompany Kane whilst he found Long Eared Owls breeding in Manchester. All the hard work paid off and the following day I watched them get ringed, Then returned to my Local patch to find another Long Eared owl nest!
June - Black headed Gull colony with Robin Sellars, Steve Christmas, Will Price and Ian Gardener. Over 500 Black Headed gull chicks ringed in under 2 hours. A Follow up trip with Kane Brides and Chris Bridge produced another 110.
July through to August. - ICELAND.
Ringing Puffins, Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Shag, Snow Bunting, Eider, Snipe, Red necked Phalarope, Dunlin, Oystercatchers, Arctic terns, Black Guillemot, Redwings,Ringed plover, Golden Plover and last but not least Whooper Swans for nearly a month. Seeing some other amazing sites ( White Tailed Eagle really close, Great Nortern divers from above as they dive in the crystal clear water, Also hearing their Eary call. Gyr Falcons getting unbelievably close to catching Ptarmigan right next to us, and the inquisative youngsters whom let us get really close.) I had a fantastic time with 3 of the finest friends. Kane introduced us to his very welcoming Icelandic friends and they looked after us like royalty. they're fantastic people and I'm glad I met them.
August back home - Recovering, wishing I was back in Iceland.
September - Started Catching decent numbers of Coot to Colour ring. Also started ringing at Rossall again.
October - Great numbers of greenfinch dropping out of the sky straight into the net at Rossall, Also my first British Great grey Shrike. Picked up by Ian and then all the group (including a very excited Seumus). Also went Cannon netting again with SCAN in North Wales, Caught lots of Redshank, Oystercatcher, Curlew and the odd Dunlin, Knot, Lapwing, Snipe and starling (Cracking trip). Oh and held my first Waxwing (STONKER)
November - Not too much but enjoyed catching Coot still at the Park and started to get good movements from them. Please keep your eyes peeled for colourful Coot.
December - Has to be the day Kane and Ciaran caught 106 Coot in a day, Also a trip to Will's Garden with Will and Phil where we were Lucky enough(?) to catch 28 Brambling in one session. A Priveledge that I probably won't see again for a long time.
Sorry no Photo's yet... I'm going to start 2011 with an update from a recent trip to Ireland and I'll try to slip a photo in.
Let's see if 2011 can be half as good at 2010... I'm sure with a lot of effort and a bit of luck, we can improve?
Showing posts with label Ian Gardener. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ian Gardener. Show all posts
Friday, 21 January 2011
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Stanley Park ringing.
This morning foudn Myself, fellow trainee Ian Gardener and our trainer Seumus Eaves at Stanley park in Blackpool. Our aim was to catch and Colour ring Coot for a project being undertaken by Kane Brides on Coot movements in the north west of England. Nearly 200 have been ringed so far at various sights and if you are to come across any of these birds please find time to report them to Kane at the following address - kanebrides@googlemail.com. So we set off to find the only unfrozen piece of water which the birds had kept clear by their sheer volume (Last night I had 70+ Tufted duck and 30+ Shoveler along with 128+ Coot, few dozen Mallard, lots of feral geese and a few Pochards.) This morning however there was not as many birds as last night however the Coot numbers seem to be quite stable at the minute! with around 200 birds spread between the park and the Mere. So with our bread and enthusiasm we began to feed the ducks, we caught and ringed 5 coot within the first hour (Not only because the birds were hungry but also because they were not used to being grabbed by the general passers by) So with 5 new coot caught we were all quite content and as the birds were not coming in close enough anymore we thought we would try to catch some gulls. The gulls thought better of it to be honest and really were not interested in our offerings at all, so this attempt unlike the previous was unsucessful.
After our session at the Park I decided to have a look on the Mere to see if anything out of the ordinary was happening today... And it was. I was greeted by the Sirens on the Wardens Van and their horn as they tried to get the attention of some absolute idiots who were Ice skating on the Mere! In fact she was more than old enough to know better (About 60). She came over to the wardens and argued about Autority and "Who was he to tell her what to do" he finest quote for me was "Well we're from the Netherlands, we just climb over fences!" her husband walked behind her Kicking at the ice underneath him to try and gage the thickness of it! Shame in my book that the ice didn't send a mighty crack infront of him so he would have learnt a lesson. Anyway after they were off the ice I went into the hide, Not much out of the ordinary in terms of species but behaviour was a bit different with Song thrush and Blackbird sat on the mere along with Jackdaw and crow. It is a bit surreal however I also feel for the birds as for how hard it must be just to survive in this recent weather! Cetti's Warbler shot across infront of the hide and a couple of people caught little more than a glimpse of it. 86 Coot on the ice today with only a very small area of open water which had a couple of hundred bathing gulls and around 150 mixed duck including Goldeneye, Pochard, Shoveler, Wigeon, Teal, Mallard and Tufted ducks! Evidence of the harsh conditions on the mere today with a Dead Herring gull which was providing some well needed Protein to some Coot which were not going to miss this opportunity! (I should have known they have a taste for meat after they scratched, bit and gouged at my arm as I tried to hold them steadyu to ring earlier in the morning) A couple of snipe on the ditch which had a bit of moving water in it probably also struggling to feed in this weather. Nothing else of note here so it was back home for me.
Back home I had a few more birds than usual in the garden including my second ever Redwing, a few Blue tit, Great tit, Song thrush, Blackbird, Robin, dunnock, Wrens, Starlings and House Sparrows also made the most of the feed. Lots of Starlings today however there was still not as many as in previous weeks so have some already fallen foul of the conditions? Let's hope not.
After our session at the Park I decided to have a look on the Mere to see if anything out of the ordinary was happening today... And it was. I was greeted by the Sirens on the Wardens Van and their horn as they tried to get the attention of some absolute idiots who were Ice skating on the Mere! In fact she was more than old enough to know better (About 60). She came over to the wardens and argued about Autority and "Who was he to tell her what to do" he finest quote for me was "Well we're from the Netherlands, we just climb over fences!" her husband walked behind her Kicking at the ice underneath him to try and gage the thickness of it! Shame in my book that the ice didn't send a mighty crack infront of him so he would have learnt a lesson. Anyway after they were off the ice I went into the hide, Not much out of the ordinary in terms of species but behaviour was a bit different with Song thrush and Blackbird sat on the mere along with Jackdaw and crow. It is a bit surreal however I also feel for the birds as for how hard it must be just to survive in this recent weather! Cetti's Warbler shot across infront of the hide and a couple of people caught little more than a glimpse of it. 86 Coot on the ice today with only a very small area of open water which had a couple of hundred bathing gulls and around 150 mixed duck including Goldeneye, Pochard, Shoveler, Wigeon, Teal, Mallard and Tufted ducks! Evidence of the harsh conditions on the mere today with a Dead Herring gull which was providing some well needed Protein to some Coot which were not going to miss this opportunity! (I should have known they have a taste for meat after they scratched, bit and gouged at my arm as I tried to hold them steadyu to ring earlier in the morning) A couple of snipe on the ditch which had a bit of moving water in it probably also struggling to feed in this weather. Nothing else of note here so it was back home for me.
Back home I had a few more birds than usual in the garden including my second ever Redwing, a few Blue tit, Great tit, Song thrush, Blackbird, Robin, dunnock, Wrens, Starlings and House Sparrows also made the most of the feed. Lots of Starlings today however there was still not as many as in previous weeks so have some already fallen foul of the conditions? Let's hope not.
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