AM Reds and PM Golds

This weekend Kane and I travelled up to Manchester for a weekend's ringing with Ciaran, Chris & Zac. On Saturday I left the house early to met up with Steve Christmas for a mist netting session at Walkden while the guys went to Atherton woods for an all day session.

My ringing session was fairly quiet but we did manage to catch a good number of Redpolls and a rather welcome retrap Great Spotted Woodpecker, as well a one (mandatory!) Blue Tit.

A lovely bright male

Taken shortly before drawing blood from poor Steve!

I finished my session up at around luchtime and so headed over to find the guys in the woods via McDonalds for 'supplies'! The main aim of the day's ringing session in Atherton Woods was to collect data for ZSL on Avian Pox as well as to help Zac with his dissertation project. 20 Blue Tits were recruited into Zac's project and 2 birds were caught showing signs of Avian Pox. A superb variety of birds were processed including my very first and long awaited Goldcrest.

A cracking male Nuthatch and one of my favourite woodland birds

Smile for the camera!

My very first Goldcrest!

Ciaran with 2 of the 3 Treecreepers


Sunday saw us mist netting in Kane's garden and of course no weekend would be complete without a Coot session. The highlight of the garden session was catching a bright male Bullfinch.

All talk and no bite these guys!

Whilst out at Crompton Lodges I attempted to catch my first Tufted Duck but all I ended up with was a purple hand to match my nail varnish! Next time perhaps...

New recruits at Crompton

Big thanks goes to Steve Christmas, Michael & Mary, Kane & the gang. Another weekend done and soon it will be time for us to head back down to Slimbridge.

Some of the gang hard at work

More Bonnie Coots and Shakerley Magic!

Before I blog about this weekend I wanted to briefly write about last weekend's trip to The Annual BTO Conference at Swanwick. It was my first time at the conference along with Kane, Chris and Craig Brookes. I really enjoyed the conference and it was great to met so many new people such as BTO's Andy Clements and Kate Risely. Over the course of the weekend there were many fascinating talks, my favorites included talks by Richard Castell, Richard Broughton, John Wilson and Jane Reid. An enjoyable weekend was had by all and it was especially nice to finally met Craig who's just returned from Sweden. 

This weekend was very varied from catching Coots up here in Scotland to hiding in the bushes at 6am in Bangor harbour waiting for the 'boom'! As the snow fell and the weather here in Stirling suddenly turned cold Kane and I decided to go after the local Coots. Thursday was a little manic shall we say, trying to get Kane to Scotland as red alerts were being issued by the Met office, flights were cancelled and mobiles ran out of batteries but luckily Kane made it and so after a horrific car journey to pick him up we were finally ready to catch some Coots. 

After my uni exam on Friday morning we set out in search of Coots - what better way to de-stress after an exam? We had a good catch of Coots which now sport new Darvic rings and as the Black-headed Gulls were hungry and therefore catchable we ringed 8 new and had 1 Polish control!

Kane was worried he was losing his 'BHG touch' but as he caught all of the day's BHGs I don't think he has anything to worry about, especially due to the last catch - you'd have to have seen it to believe it!

As the Coots and gulls wised up to our intentions and started to shy away from our reach we decided to pack up and head down to North Wales. A nice but long drive later we arrived in Bangor for another SCAN cannon netting attempt. Unfortunately Saturday ran very similar to the last SCAN session we attended. After getting up at 5am and setting the nets in the dark, a nice catch of Redshank was lined up in front of the nets and as the time to fire came ever so close a juvenile Buzzard flew over and flushed the lot! Luckily the other team over at Beaumaris had better luck and managed to fire on a flock of 400+ Dunlin. As the catch was so large extra extractors were required, so most of our team from Bangor harbour were sent over to help out. This gave me a nice bit of extracting experience before Kane and I had to shoot off to Manchester.

On Sunday it was time to net Kane's winter feeding site (Shakerley) for the first time of the season. I had heard so much about the Shakerley feeding station and so was eager to experience a session there and what a session it was! A very nice catch was had of approximately 60 birds including a couple of new species for me in the form of a Treecreeper and a few Willow Tits.

Both Shakerley and I's first Treecreeper

I was a fool to think these guys would behave similar to their long-tailed cousins, more like their Blue Tit brothers - ouch!

Some nice Bullfinches were also caught giving me the chance to learn more about ageing them.

Juvenile Bullfinch (female) - note the obvious contrast in the greater coverts.

Adult Bullfinch (male) - note the uniformly light grey tips of the greater coverts.

A bonnie flock of Long-tailed tits were also caught which kept up busy.

Can't help but go 'awww!'

Another key bit of training over the weekend was getting to do some of the data input in IPMR, which I am quite enjoying using. Thanks to Kane for making the daunting trip up to Scotland and for both encouraging and teaching me more about ringing.

Tomorrow is my last uni exam of the winter and I shall then be free until mid-February to go in search of Coots, have some ringing adventures and go back down to Slimbridge for another stint of volunteering in the Species Monitoring Unit....stay tuned!

A Trip To Chew

Early on Sunday morning after getting a couple of hours sleep at a friends house I quietly packed my bag (at 4.30am) and snuck out of their house - why? To take a trip to Chew Valley to help out on their CES. I have always wanted to go to Chew Valley and have heard many stories about it  and as I was in the general area anyway I thought I would take a wee trip. I was very excited to go.  I was especially hoping to ring my dream bird - A Kingfisher, but did I get it?

I arrived at 5.50am and met up with the other ringers. There were 11 nets set with a further 2 being erected later in the morning. There were a lot of birds during the 6 hours of CES including: Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Song Thrush, Long-Tailed Tit, Chiffchaff, Wren , Robin, Blue Tit and Blackcap. There was also a stunning Grasshopper Warbler caught - the first I have ever seen but another lucky ringer got that one.

Sedge Warbler

Whilst at Chew I was taught how to do fat and pectoral scores which was great to learn and very interesting.

Wren

Reed Warbler

There was also an odd looking juvenile Dunnock caught which has us boggled for a while as to its identity.




The mystery Dunnock



During the last hour of the CES I got a real treat, no not a Kingfisher but a recap Treecreeper. I love Treecreepers and processing it was amazing. They are so small and delicate and make the cutest wee chirp sounds. It was great to see one up close and to be able to marvel at it's hooked beak and specialised claws.

A very cute juvenile Treecreeper

My first Treecreeper

Soon the morning came to a close and it was time to take down the nets and head over to the fancy ringing hut for a chat and some much needed caffeine for some. Chew Valley has a great set up, operating two CESs (one on either side of the lake) and having a central ringing station. After arriving at the ringing station and meeting up with the other ringers from the other CES I started to get ready to head off back to Wales but just then my new favourite person (Alan Ashman) came into the hut holding a beautiful and unringed Kingfisher! After a bit of teasing I was handed the bird and given the absolute honour of ringing and processing it. After ringing it and receiving some daggers from the Kingfisher virgins I took the little stunner outside for it's very own photo shoot.

Say cheese!

The Kingfisher was absolutely stunning, the blue is so vivid and their feet so odd! A special overlap (SO) ring is used on Kingfishers which is applied by hand and is a delicate process. I am so thrilled to have ringed such an impressive bird and will never forget it, thank you Chew!

What a stunner, a beautiful juvenile Kingfisher

I want to say a huge thank you to everyone at Chew and especially Alan, Mike, Robin and Ian. I thoroughly enjoyed my morning and would recommend a trip to Chew to absolutely anyone and everyone!

My first Kingfisher!