Better late than never

Last Friday (9th September) I met up with Gareth Owen at a new (to me) Barn Owl site near Aberystwyth where he was convinced there were still young in the nest. Sure enough on entering the barn the tell-tale hissing could be clearly heard. A landing net over the hole duly caught one of the previously unringed adults whilst the other made its escape very soon after. The box contained four chicks about 4 weeks old.
Later in the afternoon I met up with Paul and we checked another five sites in Ceredigion which I thought may still have nesting activity (either known to be late or had already had an early first brood away). Two sites, both near Tregaron, had four chicks each and we managed to catch an adult roosting in the fireplace at another. These late nests have helped to boost the unusually low productivity from these long-established sites many of which, thanks to the unusually hard winter, were empty for the first time in a long while.

Quick shot taken inside box with mobile phone on 8th July. Four large young were ringed at this nest on 9th September.

Colour ringing makes it easy(er)...

Thankfully to colour-ring ringers (whether it be a numbered colour ring, a colour ring combination or wing tags) you don't have to be a ringer to do your bit for the BTO with regards to bird recoveries.

This Black-headed Gull was seen in the harbour at Aberaeron today, happily taking fish and chips from the floor infront of me.





I have submitted the ring details to www.euring.org and will post an update when I receive any information on the bird.

Portuguese Sanderling details

Details for the Portuguese Sanderling seen at Ynyslas on 4th August are as follows:-

D38995.  Ringed 07/10/2010 Samouco Beach, Alochete, Portugal  38.44.20 N 08.59.59 W

Resighted where ringed 09/10/2010

Resighted Ynyslas 04/08/2010 1570 km NNE

The Rub of the Green

Took my two daughters, Amy and Hannah, down to Glasbury last night to have one final go at netting the Sand Martin colony there. Most of the birds have now finished their breeding activity for 2011 but there were a few still around and we managed to catch 12 bringing the total to well over 300 (and one French control) in just 4 trips. There were also about a dozen Yellow Wagtails and 50 linnets on the shingle but although I did managed to catch a dozen Linnets the Yellow Wags were not having any of it. As dusk approached the calls of a Green Sandpiper brought visions of better things. I quickly set a 60ft North Ron Super Fine across the old ox-bow and went off in search of the sandpiper. A couple of minutes later we were slowly moving no less than 4 Green Sandpipers towards the net! Amazingly (as anyone who has ever tried to catch Green Sands before will know) two of them complied fully and headed straight for the bottom shelf hotly pursued by one very happy ringer. Dad, we didn't know you could run that fast!!

Not a single Green Sandpipers was caught in Wales during 2010!

Our first ever RAS submission!

Have just completed and sent in my first ever RAS (re-trapping adults for survival) submission, for Hawfinches in North Wales! All pretty painless I have to say! This year, after thinking about it for quite a few, I registered three schemes with the BTO. One on Hawfinches, one on Dippers and one (jointly with Adrienne Stratford) on Choughs. It is particularly important nowadays that as well as enjoying the process we should all strive to maximize the conservation benefit of the ringing we do.

I was absolutely staggered to discover that in the first season we made 194 captures of Hawfinches at our site in North Wales including 128 new birds and 1 Norwegian control, which had originally been ringed as an adult male in Mandal, Norway on 15th April 2010 (925km NE).

Adrienne taking unnecessary risks with the Norwegian control!

Massive thanks to Dave Smith for making it all possible, to Jerry Lewis for showing the way, and to the many ringers who came along to help! Fingers have almost recovered enough for next season!

Long-eared Owl? - well getting there!

Following a tip-off from Red Liford I high-tailed it up to my old home village of Cwmystwyth last night to see if I could catch two young Long-eared Owls that he had heard calling near to his house. Sure enough, both chicks were sat out on fence-posts on the edge of a small plantation and were soon caught with a torch and landing-net. The length of the "ears" and the down on the head confirmed that they had only recently fledged, much later than would be considered normal.

This isn't just a Hobby

Just back from a very wet 10 day camper-van holiday in Scotland with Caroline and the kids. Whilst we were away I was notified that Michelle Frater had located a new Hobby nest with large young aaargghhhh!!!! That very nearly brought the holiday to a premature end!  Almost as soon as we got back I was heading off just over the border into Shropshire to meet Michelle and Leo Smith to see if it was still possible to ring them.  The three chicks were quite large but extremely well-behaved!

Following this success myself and Leo joined up with his girlfriend Josie to try and locate another nest at a site where he had recently heard adults alarm calling. Sure enough we soon managed to located the nest in a streamside alder tree. Finding the landowner was equally simple and it turned out he had already given us permission at another nest nearby! It was great to see that he was genuinely pleased to have Hobbys nesting on his farm and as amazed as we were when it turned out to be two pairs with a total of five young between them!

Following the successes of last year, with one young Hobby recovered on its southwards migration in the French Pyrennes and another identified by its colour-rings recently at Minsmere, both myself and Paul made big efforts to increase the number of Hobby nests that we ring at. So far this year the total is an amazing 21 chicks and 4 adults including the female shown below with the unusual head arrangement!

ah,  that's better, only temporary thankfully!

Foreigners on the beach

A quick visit to the high tide at Ynyslas this morning proved very rewarding. Amongst a group of 15 Sanderlings was a colour-ringed bird originally ringed in Portugal (bottom right in photo). Several ringed Sandwich Terns, including one with a Dutch ring (centre), and a Black-headed Gull were also present.  I managed to read all but one of the numbers on the Dutch tern and two of the BTO-ringed ones. Hopefully ringing details will follow shortly.

The World's most expensive Sandwiches?

With a maximum count of nearly 200 Sandwich Terns in the Dyfi Estuary recently it was time to head to the point with some wader nets and see what the tide would bring.  On 2nd August myself and Jane set 3 60 ft nets on the shingle, a time-consuming operation as the nets have to be secured to mountains of piled boulders so that the guys don't pull out once the sand gets wet. Satisfied that the nets were grand we sat back to listen to the restful sound of Sandwich Tern played very loudly through my sound system. As the hight tide (and 500 oystercatchers) approached expectation built! Thankfully all but a few of the oystercatchers departed leaving the nets to their intended targets. As the water surged under the net, in near perfect weather conditions, we started to catch the first few terns and by the end of the evening had caught 7 new Sandwich Terns.  A major downside to the evening was the premature end to catching caused by the submergence of one very expensive sound system into the Irish Sea! The sounds of my disapproval could be clearly heard in Aberystwyth! I must send a note to the ringers forum letting everyone know not to drop iPhones into salt water (or any water for that matter!!).

Never to be deterred a repeat visit the following night was more productive with another 9 new and two control Sandwich Terns, 2 Sanderling and 2 Oystercatchers and thankfully my already replaced, brand new iPhone stayed remarkably dry!

Juv Sandwich Tern having a quick shake before the off!

Swift action necessary

Early this morning myself and Jane headed off to a church in south Wales (which will remain confidential for reasons later apparent). No we hadn't suddenly seen the light just a very good ringing opportunity! Driving past the other morning I had noticed about 50 swifts circling the church and flying up under the eaves. A quick note was made of the vicar's contact details and a couple of attempted phone calls later permissions were in place. An early visit this morning saw the church sandwiched between two 60 ft super fine nets causing much intrigue to those visiting their departed loved ones. Catching was very slow but eventually a few adults and one juvenile swift dropped into the nets.

Thinking that it might also be possible to access some of the nests under the eaves for ringing pulli, which it was, I managed to blag the loan of a long ladder off the caretaker. The sight that greeted me on getting to the top was horrifying! Some years previous, and under the auspices of a different vicar, a handy-man had been tasked with trying to prevent the swifts gaining access to the church. His solution was to cram the eaves full of wire-netting! Unfortunately the mesh was big enough to allow the swifts to squeeze through (but only just) and many had become trapped on trying to get out again. In total over 20 corpses were caught up in the wire. A few sharp words were exchanged with the caretaker and within 20 minutes I'd pulled it all out and left it in a heap on the floor!! Hopefully our continuing interest, and the opportunity to see the swifts close-up will prevent any future attempts to discourage them from nesting.