Gulling around.

Earlier in the week I met up with several other members of Fylde Ringing Group in the hope of catching and ringing some Turnstone ahead of a Colour-marking project we hope to start soon. The birds were not playing ball at all. We failed to catch any.

Eager to ring a couple of birds, myself and Ian, spurred on by the recent C permit approvals made our way to a local park to try to grab a gull or two. We waited and watched a man mobbed by Herring Gulls whilst he fed them only to try ourselves and have all the birds disappear.

We ended the morning birdless.

In the Afternoon I again tried to catch birds, this time at my prime ringing spot, Stanley Park. Here the birds are fed by passers by and their children all day, everyday so the birds here are more used to scraps of bread!

With many birds showing interest in my offerings I decided I would pick a particular bird and catch it. Having so much choice doesn't happen often so you have to take your opportunities. The result; one very angry handful.



1st Winter Herring Gull

I also managed to catch 1 Black-headed Gull and 1 Coot before having to clean up and go to work.

Wednesday again a free hour around lunchtime I decided to try my luck at Fairhaven. Far too windy to catch birds by hand today as they were coming no way near close. Instead I had an audience, the audience included the birds below.



JON8 was first ringed in Oslo, April 2011

It has spent the winter 2011/12 around Fairhaven Lake 1078 Km away from it's original ringing site.




JHZ2

I am,as yet unsure of the origins of this bird (The same project maybe)

It just goes to show how much you can do in 1 hour and how valuable colour-ringing is to the re-sighting of ringed birds.

Continued cold.

With the cold weather from last week looking like it would stay for a while there was continued effort to catch a few birds. This week, time was spent at Stanley Park and Fairhaven lake mainly with 35 new birds being captured either in traps or by hand.

11 Blue Tit
2 Great Tit
1 Long-tailed Tit
1 Robin
5 Starling
1 Mallard
6 Coot
8 Black-Headed Gull

In addition to the birds caught there was also a few noteworthy sightings, 4 Colour-ringed Coot at Fairhaven on the 9th all came from outside the Fylde but as yet we are yet to hear where they were originally ringed. Also 2 or 3 from Stanley park have been ringed elsewhere.

2 Black-headed Gull Darvics were read this week, one from Norway (Fairhaven Lake bird) and 1,White-VLJ from Denmark, returning for it's 5th Winter to Stanley park. It's always worth checking a roosting flock of gulls for darvics or metal rings as they are very often readable and there's many projects within Northern Europe where birds are being colour ringed, one within the North West of England has been started by Kane Brides.

Besides grabbing and trapping, this weekend I joined Seumus and set out to Rawcliffe Moss feeding station where we erected 2 nets. A nice morning was had with catch of 36 birds, 14 were recaptures but all of this data is worthwhile. 10 Yellowhammers were the undoubted highlight. For more see www.fleetwoodbirder.blogspot.com/

This year has got off to a flying start with over 450 birds already ringed, comparable with this time last year when only 290 new birds had been ringed. Our success this year is probably down to increased effort and better weather. Hopefully our luck continues...

Remember, please look out for birds with rings on when you are out and about as it really is useful to hear about any birds sighted. Any colour ringed Coot sighted can be sent to Kanebrides'@'gmail.com

A big thank you and a new start.

I do not blog as often as I may hope but I feel that if I am to blog it has to be something of interest. There has been a few developements since I last blogged...

Firstly I would like to say a massive thank you to Seumus Eaves, Phil Slade and Kane Brides in particular for all their help and hard work putting up with me throughout my training to ring birds. I have recently applied for a restricted netting permit and this should appear hopefully before I vacate (More on this later) So many thanks to these 3 and all the other great people who I have been lucky enough to spend some time and great experiences with whilst out catching birds.

Next, the fantastic group of friends I have been lucky enough to travel around with, having countless laughs and triumphs as well as failings and frollocks which has temporarily split up. With Chris (Birdman) Bridge always at Uni I suppose we are all used to this and he seems to get back often enough to spend time with us, however Ciaran, after spending the whole last winter working hard and enjoying it being Kane's assistant has now vacated to the Farne Islands to be a Warden until September and possibly longer? I am sure Ciaran will do fantastic work out there and I wish him all the best with his travels. Stay safe mate. Kane and me have held the fort before whilst Ciaran and Chris travel far and wide birding or working, but never before have I left. This will mean all of the fantastic bunch are now fragmented, I am off to Sweden to Kvismare Bird Observatory to aid with Census work and from June to September run a ringing base.

I must wish Chris good luck with his academic studies whilst I am away, please concerntrate on Uni studies this year. Twitching is not the way forward and do NOT let Mr Hincliffe twist your arm for some "tick", it really isn't worth losing out on uni for!

Cia, stay safe and do well mate. I have faith you will be having a cracking time and will be in your element out there. I've seen the pics and it looks like you're already settling well.


Kane, look after yourself and keep busy (I'm sure you will). Thanks for all the help and hard work you've put in with me :) Really appreciate this.

All three of you have been a fantastic inspiration whilst out and about and I will miss you all greatly. I'm sure that the next time we each meet will be a fantastic occasion and I look forward to it already.

Possibly a joint belated 21st for Cia (very very late for you mate) and Birdman just a little late? I'll be back in October, however I hope to keep the blog updated from Sweden if at all possible.

Good birding and best wishes to all.

C

2010 Highlights

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?

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.