August saw some evening mist netting for Swallows, which was great. We caught the birds then drove back to Steve and Rachel's to ring and process. I've always admired Swallows, but until you get them in the hand you won't believe the colour on them, and the variation between individuals. Due to the long distances travelled during migration, and the many perils faced along the way, it is quite rare to get a retrap, but we actually had a couple out of the 3 sessions, which caused some excitement. I wonder if we'll retrap any of 13s birds next year?
September saw the start of SCAN again, and it was great to catch up with everyone. One thing I've realised is how lucky I am to have such an active and long-standing group right on my doorstep. Many ringers come up for the weekend and travel from as far afield as Lancaster, Sheffield and the Midlands. The first session was a rather unsuccessful Curlew catch, with a flock of about 300 beating the net, leaving behind 14 stragglers - one of which was a Finnish control! The next day we tried for some Oystercatchers but the conditions were against us and we had birds above and to both sides of the nets, but not in the catching area. Still, a nice day to sunbathe in the bunker! October was a more successful catch with a retry for Oystercatchers resulting in 389 birds, and the Sunday at Bangor Harbour resulting in 143 birds, including some Wigeon amongst the Redshank.
November was another hectic ringing month. It started with a huge Redshank catch with SCAN - what Steve estimated to be about 200 birds was actually over to 400! With all these bumper catches, I wasn't getting much of an opportunity to do any extracting, being the person on the team with the most experience but least for extracting, my main tasks have been organising the keeping cages and ensuring that the correct number of birds are put into each cage. On this session, we had to "ring and fling" about 50 birds before we could start processing (because of welfare, all birds must be released within 3 hours after capture). Even then, the last bird was release with less than 5 minutes to go!
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| Monday morning - MIST! |
The following weekend I was invited to help with a Barnacle Goose catch at Ynys Hir RSPB reserve. The Sunday morning started with a return to Arthurs for some mist netting. Setting the nets near feeders allowed us to get a fair number of birds early on before the breeze picked up and we decided to call it a day. We then travelled down to Ynys Hir for our stake-out. I'm ashamed to say that this was my first time to this part of the world, and from what I saw, I can't wait to go back! We arrived at the reserve and decided to set the cannons and hide ASAP before losing the light. Unfortunately, numbers were lacking slightly for helping with this, and carrying heavy cannon netting equipment across saltmarshes is no fun, especially with the many deep sunken gullies to cross. However, we were treated to a stunning sunset on the marsh and left feeling optimistic about our chances. Dinner in a local pub, then back to the cosy visitor centre with a lovely log burner for an early night.
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| Kelvin pouring hot coffee - luxury! |
Monday started grey and misty, so with the two Rachel's in the hide on the marsh, the rest of the team had the comfort of a large wooden hide, being able to walk around and even visit the bathroom and coffee maker! I have never been one for sitting in hides "twitching" but I did enjoy my day in the hide with fellow birders. However, Barnacle Geese are very good at playing ping pong, especially when the playing field is a huge estuary stretching for miles! Day 1 was called off when we could no longer see our canvas hide on the marsh, and certainly not the nets beyond. Back to the visitor centre to reassess our plans - with one day left we were slightly desperate to catch something! Another pub dinner and evening infront of the log burner left us all relaxed and come dawn, there was a slight feeling of optimism between the team.
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| Tuesday morning - amazing how a bit of sun increases optimism |
When we arrived, the geese were seemingly scattered in small groups in front of the main hide, but not near the catching area. We sent out "twinklers" (people who's job it is to move the birds into position) which once again resulted in a game of ping pong - they went everywhere BUT where we wanted them! By 11am things were looking pretty bleak when the main flock of over 100 Barnacle Geese flew just upriver of the catching area. I was sent out with RSPB Intern Matthew to try and herd them back to the nets. It was a gorgeous sunny day with a slight breeze, but we were aware that the final deadline for the catch would be about 2pm, by which time we would have to go and retrieve the equipment before we lost the light.
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| Goose herding |
When we found the flock, they were sitting on an island in the river. We made ourselves visible and slowly moved towards them, and helped by the rising tide meant that they flew off onto the saltmarsh infront of us and mixed with about 200 Canada Geese. Using radios to communicate with the team, we gently pushed the birds downriver, although they seemed to be disappearing down the bank round the bend. From where we were, I was convinced the geese would walk along the rivers edge and avoid the catching area, but just as I was trying to figure out how to solve this, Steve announced "Prepare to fire, 3, 2, 1..." We were so far away, we started running on 2, which sent the remaining Canada Geese into the air, although this had no effect on the Barnacles, who had wandered right into the catching area. Running along saltmarsh is very difficult and it felt like we were miles away (probably at least 800m). By the time we arrived, the rest of the team were mostly there and setting up keeping cages. I glanced over at the nets and was so happy - we'd actually caught some!
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| Extracting gooses (Photo by Mathew Heaver) |
With the interns in charge of the keeping cages, I got stuck in extracting the birds. Barnacle Geese are a lot smaller than I'd been expecting, but Rachel's explanation of how to hold them was very appropriate... like a set of bagpipes! They tuck in quite nicely under your arm and you hold the neck upright to avoid any "Glasgae kisses" (although they were all VERY well behaved!) We'd caught 25, so it didn't take long to get them all settled. Next came a lot of head scratching as Steve tried to figure out how to age and sex this "ringing tick" for everyone. After looking through the available literature, the first few birds were all aged as adults. Obviously, geese have much larger legs than my usual passerines and waders, so take a much larger ring. I certainly need to work on my hand strength as they were a bit of a nightmare for me to fit, however I did get to do a lot of dipping the rings (when you tuck one edge under the other slightly to close any gap), so that was a useful technique to learn.
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| Fly Away Home - so we can see where you go |
It was decided that we would release the birds as a flock, because we were unsure whether there would be any juveniles amongst them, and given that the rest of the flock had disappeared, didn't want anyone getting lost. So after each bird was ringed, measured and weighed, they went back into the keeping cages. Once we'd sussed the aging process (something to do with white flecks on the wings, I think), it didn't take long to get them all done and ready for release. This was my first flock release, and due to the importance of the study, everyone involved wanted plenty of photos, so we lined up on the opposite bank infront of the keeping cages. The idea was that Steve, Rachel and David would pull the keeping cages in one direction, lifting them up and allowing the birds to fly off in our direction. The birds had other ideas, with some managing to get out the back and fly upriver before realising they were going the wrong way and turning back to join the rest of the flock heading downriver towards the estuary.
If I'd have had my proper camera with me, I could have got some lovely shots of the geese flying off into the setting sun, but that was back at the hide across the marsh, so my phone came in handy for getting some snaps. A quick pack up was organised and with the interns still around, we had more pairs of hands to carry the equipment back to the truck. By the time we were saying our goodbye's it was already dark, so I REALLY hope to get back down to Ynys Hir again soon to have a proper look around.
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| Lovely sunset to end the adventure |
The 30th Nov/ 1st Dec saw the last SCAN session of 2013. Saturday we headed out to Rhos on Sea for the Turnstone flock that roosts here. This is a very public area, with our catch taking place in front of houses and hotels on the promenade, so we had to be very aware of what we were doing. The three nets had been set the previous night, so we didn't have long to wait before the birds arrived. Unfortunately, the Turnstone's were not alone on the beach and were joined by Redshank and Oystercatcher, in large numbers. Although the birds were spread out in front of all the nets, we only fired one, which was just as well, catching 140 Turnstone, 220 Oystercatcher, 16 Redshank and a single Dunlin. A busy few hours was spent sitting on the sunny beach ringing and processing all the birds, and spending some time showing the birds to the interested locals. It was great to do some public engagement, especially letting the kids get up close to the birds and showing them the differences between individual birds (for aging purposes).
The next day we headed to Beaumaris boatyard for Oystercatchers, and caught LOADS (I think over 200). I spent the session helping Rachel to colour ring the birds, which makes them more easily identifiable in the field so we can see where they go to feed and roost. 51 birds went off with some new colourful leg accessories so we'll wait and see where they all end up.
That evening, Steve had arranged a wader mist netting session at Llanfairfechan so I didn't bother showering before heading back out. Due to my small foot size (5), I can't get waders that fit, which means that at these sessions I am usually on the ringing team instead of extracting (no doubt I'll have to get wet feet at some point!) Ros went to help Steve at the nets and it was clear that we were in for a busy night. In total we caught 51 Redshank, 49 Dunlin, 3 Snipe and 2 Wigeon. I ringed a fair few birds then swapped to do some weighing, which is slightly harder in the dark!
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| Synchronised extracting |
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| Great Tits don't normally make me smile! |
The following weekend my dad was visiting. Since I started ringing, he has constantly been moaning at the lack of photos, so I persuaded him to come along with his camera to take some photos for us. We went to Arthurs and set up the feeder nets as well as some in the fields. Dad came out with us and watched us putting the nets up and asked sensible questions. Usually we get a nice mixture of birds, but Blue and Great Tits are always the most common species. On this occasion they were joined by more than usual House Sparrows, some Robin, Dunnock, Blackbird, Chaffinch, Bullfinch, Godlcrest, Nuthatch, Wren, Great Spotted Woodpecker and a "tick" for me in Coal Tit (couldn't believe it when I got home to update my records and couldn't find them on my list!) Dad took great delight in watching our faces as we pulled the Tits out of the bags (they always get the same spot on your fingers!), and was even allowed to let a few go. Thankfully, he missed the agony faces and took some good profile photos of the birds, and some nice ones of us extracting.
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| Ringing TICK - Coal Tit about to be ringed |
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker getting measured |
There is some controversy over photos when out ringing, so I had to vet them all before sharing, but dad is quite good at taking photos that show what we're doing and not causing any stress to the birds. I find it valuable to see exactly what I was doing, as sometimes I feel like I'm so close to the net/ birds I struggle to give space for extracting.
Despite dad wanting to be back no-handy, we persuaded him to take a slight detour home via Llyn Padarn, where Steve and Rachel had been trying to catch some male Goosanders. Armed with some reduced bread (one advantage of working in a supermarket!) they lured the resident birds close, trying to separate the Goosanders from the Mallards and Gulls. After a few missed attempts, Rachel grabbed one and brought it back for us all to admire. They are much bigger than I'd expected, and the colouration of their plumage is amazing - from salmon pink to emerald green. Their feet are huge and the serrated edges on their beaks help them to catch slippery fish in the murky waters. Our final count for the day was 101 birds, which was a great way to end the year.
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| Rachel with her reward for a soggy elbow! |
The rest of December was very stormy, so no more ringing. :( I think 2013 will be hard to beat, but looking forward to improving and getting ever closer to a C Permit in 2014!
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