A Green Affair!

One last blog post about my ringing down in England and this time it's based on mist netting, for a change! Before moving back to Stirling there was a new site to be explored and what an amazing place. After only 3 brief morning visits over well over 100 new birds were ringed and processed!

A variety of species were caught including Long-tailed Tit, Wren, Chaffinch, Robin, Dunnock, Blue & Great Tits and Blackbird.

A high number of new Goldfinches were also processed with over 35 new birds being ringed, let's hope for some good recoveries from this lot!

A personal highlight was another new species for me in the form of a Collared Dove. Great birds and brilliant in the hand.

Gorgeous blood-red eyes

Surprisingly no Coal Tits were caught or even seen during the mist netting sessions. We did however catch quite a few wintering Blackcaps.

Ready for your close-up?!

By far the star species has to have been the Greenfinches with over 25 new birds being ringed. In the two years I have been training I have only ever ringed 15 Greenfinches in total so these new birds almost treble that! It was a fantastic way of getting my eye in on the species and I am now a lot more confident in ageing/sexing them.

These mist netting sessions were a great opportunity to help me progress towards my C permit, as I was processing large amounts of birds whilst getting the chance to practice what I have learned in terms of ageing etc. 

Huge thanks goes to Kane for helping me train towards my C permit and for allowing me to come out with him so often, also thanks goes to Ness for the photos, to our brilliant wee scribes and to the land owners for allowing us to ring on their fantastic 'mini nature reserve'.

Slimbridge Festival of Birds

Last weekend Slimbridge played host to it’s first 'Festival of Birds' and it was a great success. Over the weekend I worked on the ringing demonstrations, this being my first time working on demos.  It was a bit nerve racking at first, having lots of public watching your every move, but once I got used to it I quite enjoyed it.

On the Saturday I mainly helped out Brian and Maurice on the mist netting demonstration. The day ran smoothly with a good number of birds being processed, mainly tits and finches. A high proportion of the birds caught were retraps as Slimbridge plays host to a CES (Constant Effort Site) in the summer months. The highlight of the day was a male Bullfinch that was recaptured at the ripe old age of 6 years old, not bad for a Bully!

After the demo finished for the day it was nice to watch the commentated floodlight swan feed which looked stunning in the snow....with lots of hungry Bewick’s!

A very wintery Rushy

On Sunday I helped out on the duck demonstration with reserve warden Dave Paynter, Kane and Zen -  The Novia Scotia duck toller! Sunday was very busy as the ducks proved to be very popular with the public.  It was great to be indoors ringing (complete with log fire!) after spending all day Saturday out in the subzero temperatures, having delightful Blue Tits biting at my numb hands! A good range of species were seen throughout the day including Teal, Pintail, Mallard, Gadwall and my first Shelduck. 

It was nice to catch up with fellow trainee Alex Rhodes too who enjoyed ringing his first Teal

Although the weekend was rather busy it was also a perfect opportunity for me to concentrate on learning more about the ageing criteria for ducks.

I really enjoyed my weekend especially getting to ring the UK’s smallest duck (Teal) after having ringed my first Goldcrest last weekend (the UK’s smallest bird!).

Just Another Day In The Office!

I'm really enjoying my time here at Slimbridge and will really miss it when I have to leave next week to go back to uni. One of the best things about working here is that you never know what's going to happen next. My favourite surprise so far was last week when I had a knock on my office door from Maurice telling me that the reserve warden had just taken a good catch of ducks and needed a spare pair of (ringer's) hands! Of course I leapt out of the office, along with Kane and Maurice and got myself over to the wee duck hut. 

Male Teal

It was a brilliant wee session where I got to ring my first Teal, Pintail and processed a beautiful Gadwall! It was nice to run into fellow ringer Ian Lees who helped us out in the duck hut too.

Teal awaiting processing.

It was not only great to handle these new species but to learn how to age them, which can be quite tricky on ducks at this time of the year.  

Male Pintail

Special  thanks goes to Dave Paynter for inviting us along and teaching me about the ageing of these new species.

Slimbridge Sunrise

Last Wednesday myself, Ciaran and Zac joined Kane on a wee day trip down to WWT Slimbridge. It was an early start but at least we were able to enjoy the sunrise at Slimbridge and the sunset, as we stayed to watch Kane do the floodlight Bewick feed.

Whilst Kane was busy working the three of us ventured around the grounds and reserve, enjoying some amazing wildlife along the way including my first Lesser Scaup and the best views of Snipe I've ever had. I never been able to appreciate Snipe's plumage up close and I must say they are beautiful.We also had great views of the famous Zeiss hide Bitterns, Water Rail, White-fronted geese and a bathing Peregrine.

Female Lesser Scaup (photo Zac Hinchcliffe)

We couldn't resist hand feeding a few of these fellas, along with the Moorhens .

We also watched a Spoon-billed Sandpiper commentated feed and the wee guys are looking brilliant. WWT have been working incredibly hard to help save the Spoon-billed Sandpiper, both in their native breeding/wintering grounds and by captive breeding them at Slimbridge in the hope that they can save this stunningly majestic and characteristic species from extinction - more information can be found Here about the important work the WWT are doing.

After 10 hours at Slimbridge (and maybe a few at the pub!) we finished our trip off by watching Kane do his Bewick feed and he did a brilliant job.

Floodlight feed - amazing to watch. Kane you are one lucky pup!

It was great to be back at Slimbridge again and I'm really looking forward to moving down there in a couple of weeks to volunteer with the Species Monitoring Unit.

Thanks to the guys for a great day (I hope Ciaran enjoyed his first trip at Slimbridge) and to Kane for doing all of the driving and inviting us along.