8 Tonnes of Mute Swans and A Bad Back AKA Abbotsbury 2011 Mute Swan Round-up

On Friday I set off from work bound for Dorset, after a very long delayed journey I arrived at Abbotsbury Swannery just over 4 hours later! It was time to make me debut as a swan ringer. I was camping with the troops from WWT Slimbridge, it did take me a while to find them though as now body knew what each other looked like which made it interesting to find each other in the masses to say the least.



A ringer's camp!


 After wrestling with my tent we headed off to the pub for some much needed grub. After only getting a few hours sleep we awoke at 5am to the sound of Chris Perrins on the loudspeaker! As we stumbled out of our tents into the light we were greeted by a TV crew filming for BBC One's The One Show. So after doing a bit of advertising for WWT we headed off to join up with everyone else for the briefing. Then it was time for the main event.

Readying the troops

With around 90 canoeists out in the water the rest of us waded out into the murky water to join up with them and herd the swans into the pen. There was a lot of pressure not to fall in as the entire time the TV crew were pointing a camera in our faces. Luckily no one fell in and the 771 swans were safely rounded up and secured in their pen. It was quite freaky as we waded close to the banks as we had been accidentally corralling the lake's population of fish at the same time as the swans so as we got closer to the banks the fish would jump out of the water and into us or slam into our feet under the water which sure does make you jump!

Filming for The One Show

The brilliant canoeists

Corralling the swans

After dragging our sorry selves out of the water, a quick change and a nice hot dog for breakfast the processing could begin. WWT had it's own ringing station and processed nearly 200 swans throughout the day.

The WWT Ringing Station

I was lucky enough to have been able to ring and Darvic most of the swans. It was my first time ringing swans but I soon picked it up.

Ringing my first swan

Darvicing the swans was really interesting and I now own my very first Darvic ring which I removed from an adult Mute swan and replaced with a bright. new, shiny, yellow one reading TVT - so keep an eye out for it!

My first Darviced swan

An expertly fitted Darvic if I do say so myself!

It was a long and tiring day but completely worth it and so were the muddy clothes, bruises, scratches and achy muscles. The swans are incredibly heavy and lifting them up and down all day sure does take it toll, I have been hobbling round work all day! The Swannery reckon that we carried and weighed 8 tonnes of swans on Saturday, hence the reason I am now sporting a bad back!

Weighing a swan

During the day I was taught how to sex swans, which is not for the faint hearted I can tell you. It's actually quite a skill to sex a swan and is quite hard to master.

A male swan's bits!

After 5 hours of intense processing I was on my last swan which I decided to release back into the water myself. Of course after staying relatively unharmed the whole day the last swan saw fit to give my arm a good shredding and almost make me fall into the water in front of a large crowd of ringers!

The last swan, before it ripped into my arm

The last release

After having survived the ordeal of releasing the last swan we celebrated with some rhubarb pie and clotted cream!

Our hard earned reward

There was a great atmosphere to the day and I had great fun. It was nice to see a lot of familiar faces there like Terry Coombs and the Cardiff Ringers. I enjoyed visiting Dorset for the first time and found it a stunningly beautiful place especially the quaint little villages and seemingly everlasting sunshine.

Laura and her swan

 An amzing day was had and I can't wait to go back for the 2013 event. I want to say a special thank you to the Abbotsbury Swannery, Terry Coombs, the gang from WWT Slimbridge, my kind boss Nigel Williams at WWT Llanelli for letting me attend the ringing on behalf of WWT and to all of the other ringers, canoiests, first aiders etc that made the day a brillant one.

Me and my Mute friend

The Abbotsbury round-up will be shown on The One Show in the near future - I will update this post when the exact date/time is known. After Abbotsbury typical me decided to go on a random adventure but more about that in the next blog post which is not to be missed! Bye for now.

Showing off my handy work!

Update

Abbotsbury will be shown on The One Show on Monday 14th November at 7pm on BBC1

Kenfig CES - 21st July 2011

Yesterday I joined the Gower Bird Ringing Group at Kenfig NNR for one of their CES sessions. I have only been to Kenfig to ring a couple of times before and so it was nice to be back again. Kenfig is a lovely place, full of beautiful flora and fauna.

Pyrausta purpuralis

The nets were all set up by 6.10am in the reedbeds. As we retreated back to the ringing station we observed a Kestrel hunting overhead. The CES ran from 6.10am until 12.30pm. I personally ringed a total of 13 new birds and processed 1 retrap. Species for the day included Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Cett's Warbler, Long-Tailed Tit, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Robin, Willow Warbler, Whitethroat and Great Tit.

Willow Warbler

Personal ringing highlights were getting to ring one of my favourite garden birds (Long-Tailed Tits AKA Lottis) and Reed Warbler of which I used to overlook but am becoming ever so fascinated with now, especially since I saw my first nest with it's intricately woven patterns.

Reed Warbler

It was also a nice treat when two juvenile Robins were caught. One of these Robin's taught us an important lesson: never hold a bird over the bird book. This little Robin had recently been eating lots of juicy berries and so the bird book now sports a lovely purple page!

A pair of juvenile Robins

I always enjoy ringing the Kenfig CES as in between net rounds I get to venture about looking for all sorts of fascinating gems such as moths, butterflies, grasshoppers and wildflowers. The place was alive with grasshoppers yesterday, every where you stepped a hopper exploded out of the grass in front of you.




Common Green Grasshopper


A wildlife highlight for me was seeing my first Leaf Cutter Bee which had taken up residence in the picnic table we were using as our ringing base!

The Leaf Cutter's home in the picnic table!

On one of my walks in between net rounds I came across a beautiful Large Skipper. This was my first Skipper and I actually had no idea what it was at first and had to seek advice from a few ringing friends. The wings in particular facinate me.

Large Skipper

A lovely morning was had and thanks goes to Kenfig and The Gower Ringing Group. Kenfig aslso has a great blog: http://kenfignnr.blogspot.com/.

Now I'm off to Abbotsbury to the big Mute Swan round-up and to ring my first swans. Wish me luck!

A Bacon Buttie With A Side of Wagtail Please!

After spending most of last night and the early hours of this morning catching moths in my room I had a quick snooze and got up and headed out just before 5am. I was headed somewhere new to experience mist netting over a river for the first time. This morning I joined The Cardiff Ringers to mist net for Dippers and Grey Wagtails on the Cwm Taf Fechan.


After the nets were set up I got a surprise - a cooked breakfast in the form of a tasty bacon buttie! Luxury bird ringing surely! Whilst enjoying my bacon buttie a Grey Wagtail dropped into the net. After Rich extracted the Wagtail and I gobbled down the rest of my breakfast I was given the honour of ringing it. This was my first Grey Wagtail and what a little beauty.

3J Grey Wagtail

After the Grey Wagtail was ringed and released a good natter was had before a Dipper flew into the net. Again I was given the privilege to ring what was my first adult Dipper. Dippers are one of my favourite birds and one of the main reasons why I got into birding as I have always loved watching them bob up and down the rivers back home in Scotland.

Me and my 3J female Dipper.

Inspecting the Dipper's moult.

After the Dipper was ringed, the nets were moved further downstream but the remaining Dippers and Grey Wagtails on the river just weren't keen on the nets so the morning came to a close. I had a fantastic morning and it was great to met some of the Cardiff Ringers after having read their blog for so long. Thanks to everyone I met this morning and especially Rich Facey for inviting me along.


After I left Cwm Taf Fechan I managed to get into work and to the last hour and a half of the CES where I processed a single Chiffchaff!

Baby Blues and Little Lottis - 4th July 2011

I awoke on Monday morning to a text message telling me that the CES at work was happening right now! So after I quickly threw on some clothes and grabbed my ringing pliers I was out the door and on my way. I arrived at the site just after another net round had been completed. The rest of the morning ran quite smoothly with a little debate about differences in record keeping thrown in!



Measuring up a Chiffchaff.


Species for the morning included: Blackcap, Blackbird, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Robin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch,  Long-Tailed Tit and a camera shy Wren. There were a good number of newly fledged Blue Tits that were ringed as well as a very cute little Long-Tailed Tit fledgling (my favourite garden bird).

Little Lotti



A baby Blue.


A good morning's ringing was had, I personally ringed 10 new birds and processed 1 retrap. I was accompanied by fellow trainees Ian Hainsworth and Cedwyn Davies and their trainer Heather Coats.

Ian, Heather and Cedwyn hard at work.

Cracking Canada's at Llangorse - 3rd July 2011

After an early start yesterday I packed up my ringing gear and headed up to Llangorse Lake, Breacon for the annual Canada Goose Round-up. I soon arrived at the site and met up with 'my boys', Kane Brides, Chris Bridges and Zac Hinchcliffe who were all down for the day for the round-up.


It was a beautiful morning and perfect for a day of ringing. The annual Canada Goose round-up is held at this time of the year because the geese are in moult which means they cannot fly - this makes them prime targets for ringers with kayaks! The geese were gently rounded up out on the lake by the kayakers and a few ringers on the far shores and were slowly guided towards the catching area where a large pen was waiting for them with many ringers hiding in the bushes or behind cars!




Herding the geese on the water. Photo - Kane Brides.


 As the birds and the kayakers got closer a number of us ventured into the water to stop any escapees from breaking from the main flock, it involved getting a little wet but we're used to it.



Poised for action. Photo - Kane Brides.


The geese were then brought ashore and corralled into their pen. A total of 398 Canada geese were caught along with 1 Greylag and a lost Mallard who was released without being ringed.



Corralling the geese into the holding pen.




Forget Wally, find the Greylag!



The rest of the morning ran really smoothly with 234 new geese being ringed and 164 retraps being processed.



Busy Saving, Protecting and Inspiring!



 

 It was my first experience ringing geese and I really enjoyed it. They are quite the challenge to ring as they are very powerful birds and they are very good at biting your backs whilst being held! I only came away with a couple of bruises, result!



My first goose.



 

After we finished at the lake the gang headed to the pub for a spot of lunch and some homemade malteser squares. A truly fantastic day was had and I hope to go back and do it all again next year. Special thanks goes the ringing group and to Jerry Lewis for letting me come along and help out.



Kane, Chirs, Zac and Myself after a great day's ringing.



 

Warblers Galore - Monday 27th June 2011

I had a brilliant day on Monday spying on the competition at WWT Martin Mere with Kane Brides and Chris Bridges. We spent the morning checking the Tree Sparrow boxes in the reserve and found 3 boxes containing pulli with most of the other boxes containing third clutches of eggs.



Chris and Kane hard at work.


 The guys were very good and let me ring all of the pulli. Tree Sparrow were a new species for me to both ring and actually see!



Tree Sparrow Pulli

In the afternoon we ventured out into the grounds to try and find some grabable Coot and Moorhen. After some scouting around we found our first catchable Moorhen and within a minute of laying eyes on our Moorhen Kane had grabbed it and handed it over to me! This was my first Moorhen and they're quite the little fighters!

Adult Moorhen

Kane then went on to catch me another two juvenile Moorhens which were a real treat to ring.

Juvenile Moorhen

The next thing to 'land' in Kane's hands was the highlight of the day....a Coot! I have always wanted to ring a Coot, I love their strange feet and bright red eyes. Ringing it was a real joy and I couldn't have been happier, even after it managed to get poo on my chin!




My first Coot!

I had a really great day at Martin Mere apart from the blood sucking Clegs that seemed to follow us wherever we went. It was also great to finally see Coot Man in action, it does amaze me how easy he makes it look and how calm the birds are once caught. Kane and his team have been colour ringing Coot in the North West over the last three years, with well over 1000 birds now colour marked. The results have been fascinating ( http://birdringing.blogspot.com/2011/06/look-back-where-are-they-now.html ). The project has been a great success with some fantastic work being carried out on such an understudied species.

Later on Monday we went to another one of Kane's ringing sites and Kane and Chris managed to track down and catch 2 Lapwing pulli for me to ring which wasn't an easy task as they duck down and hide as soon as their parents signal danger. I think Lapwing pulli are now one of my favourite pulli to ring, being so cute and fluffy. It was very amusing to watch them trundle away after we let then go.



Lapwing chicks.


We later went on to check on the progress of the Long-Eared Owl nest where the chicks had just hatched. The nest contained 5 white balls of  fluff!

Long-Eared Owl Nest



Long-Eared Owl Chick

 That evening we all set off for another one of Kane's reed bed sites. On our way we passed through some amazing old English villages and earlier on Kane pointed out what was my first Corn Bunting! After having dinner in a nice old pub we took a walk around Kane's site and watched a Swallow/Sand Martin roost come down and eyed up some Mallard for the next day.

On Tuesday we got up at 4am and headed out to the reed beds where we set out two nets to try and catch some of Kane's now fledged Reed Warblers. It was a cracking morning, the sun was shinning, there were no Clegs and there were plenty of birds to be ringed.

4am over the reed beds.

Kane kindly let me and Chris do the ringing. Species for the morning included Reed Warbler, Reed Bunting, Long-Tailed Tit and Blackbird. Also whilst we were at the ringing site Kane casually caught an adult ringed Mute Swan, as you do! This was my first time holding Britain's heaviest bird and was really surprised how docile it was.

Retrap Mute Swan.

After we packed up the nets we returned for some much needed breakfast and a quick rest. Then we headed back out to try and get some more ringing in before I had to head back down to Wales. When we got back down to the lake the first thing we were greeted by was a small flock of Mallard on the grassy banks, just a bit too tempting! So we lured them in with some bread and all three of us grabbed a Mallard each. This again was a new species for me and my first time catching something by hand by myself which I really enjoyed. We ringed the two Mallard and processed the third which I believe was a retrap of Kane's.

Kane, Chris and myself with our Mallards.

After ringing and releasing the Mallards we set out to try and catch some more Reed Warblers but the wind soon picked up and the birds could soon see the net. Although Kane did manage to catch a newly fledged Reed Warbler by hand.

Newly fledged Reed Warbler.

 The guys then tried to teach me how to find my own bird nests. So after quite some time scrabbling through Hawthorn, Stinging Nettles and Briars I finally found my own active Blackbird's nest with 3 warm eggs inside. I have discovered that I am very good at finding empty nests! The guys managed to find active Reed Warbler, Blackcap and Reed Bunting nests.

Reed Bunting's nest.

Reed Warbler's nest.

Blackbird's nest.

After we had completely covered our arms in scratches from rooting about in the undergrowth in search of nests and finding some crackers we called it a day but not before I was set the challenge to find my very own Reed Warbler's nest back at work in Llanelli. So as I write this I have been spending the last 3 days out in the reed beds at work, wading through thick sludge in extremely hot, thick waders, getting cuts and mud all over myself I finally did it! I found my very first Reed Warbler's nest which looked as if the young had recently fledged from, mission accomplished!

Reed Warbler's nest at WWT Llanelli

I want to say a huge thanks to both Chris and Kane for another brilliant few days and especially to Kane for his hospitality and for getting me 5 new species! See you again soon.