Even more Gull chicks

Another gull chick ringing session tonight, this time over on the East Mainland. This site holds Common, Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

This session saw 45 birds ringed in total consisting of: 27 Common Gulls, 12 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and 6 Herring Gulls.

There is still at least one more site for ringing gull chicks to go.

No pictures from tonight's session as I forgot to take my camera.

More Gulls and Wader chicks

This evening three members of the Orkney Ringing Group and myself went across to one of the small uninhabited islands that has a small colony of  Great Black-backed Gulls to ring any chicks that we could find.

We started off by finding and ringing a couple of Herring Gull chicks.

Herring Gull chick

We then moved onto the Great Black-backed Gull colony where we found and ringed 25 chicks.

Great Black-backed Gull chick

As we were searching the area for gull chicks an adult Snipe flew out of the heather. A close look around the immediate area revealed two Snipe chicks which we were able to ring.

Snipe chicks

We also found an Eider's nest with three chicks on it but these weren't ready for ringing.

Eider chicks

When we got back to where our cars were parked we had a quick scan of the pool in the field next to the track. I spotted an adult Lapwing skulking in the long grass at the edge of the pool. A scan along the grass at the edge of the pool revealed three Lapwing chicks which we were able to ring.

Lapwing chick

The drive back to my house added an Oystercatcher chick, which was in a field next to the road, and a Common Gull chick which was wandering up the track to my house.

The evening was finished with the ringing of the three Blackbird chicks that were in a nest in my garden.

So all in all a good evening of ringing with a few more birds/species than expected. Last year at the gull colony we ringed 1 Herring Gull and 31 Great Black-backed Gulls, this year we did two of the former and 25 of the latter.

Gulls and Wader Chicks

This week I have my father staying and tonight I took him out on a ringing session so that he could get a close up encounter with some young birds and to meet some members of the ringing group.

The first part of the evening was just up the road from home where there was a small colony of Common Gulls. There was also a pair of Oystercatchers nesting and it was an Oystercatcher chick which was the first bird of the evening to be ringed.

There were 12 Common Gull chicks ringed as well.

Common Gulls

We then moved on to an area in the hills closer to home to take a look at a Black-headed Gull colony. On the way to the site we ringed a Lapwing chick and an Oystercatcher chick.

We also flushed a Snipe and after a quick look around the area the nest was located which held four eggs.

Snipe nest

On reaching the colony of Black-headed Gulls there didn't appear to be as many chicks as had been seen on a recce of the area yesterday. A total of 7 chicks were ringed.

Black-headed Gull

On returning home a second Blackbird nest was located in my garden which had two eggs and a newly hatched chick in it, so that will now be monitored to see when they will be ready for ringing.

Thanks to my father for the use of his photos.

Stock Doves

On my travels back home, on Friday (14th) from Lancashire to Orkney I stopped off at my friends Neil and Suzanna, who I had met on my trip to North Ronaldasay back in May.

While I was there Neil invited me to ring a couple of Stock Dove chicks who were nesting in his garden. This was another new species for me so thanks to Neil for that opportunity.

Wild Boar Park

I'm back down in Lancashire on my latest business trip at the moment so on Tuesday I took the opportunity to meet up with Seumus at the Wild Boar Park near Chipping in the Forest of Bowland.

There are a number of nest boxes located around the park and Seumus wanted to visit some of them to check on their progress since his last visit. We checked seven nest boxes, two were occupied by Blue Tits but the chicks weren't ready for ringing, the other five boxes were occupied by Pied Flycatchers. Two of these contained chicks that weren't ready for ringing but the other three had chicks that were. A total of 17 chicks were ringed, nine of the them by me.

On the way back to the car we spotted a young Nuthatch sat on the path being fed by one of the parents. We were able to catch it and ring it.

Also visiting the park was the local cub pack who were doing a wild flower identification exercise. We were asked by the park ranger if we could do an impromptu ringing demonstration and give a short talk on why we ringing birds.

As usual my thanks to Seumus for inviting me along to do some ringing.

Hooded Crow Chicks

Another nice sunny day today only marred late afternoon by the arrival of some fog.

However, I had the opportunity to go out with Davie, one of the guys from the ringing group, after work this afternoon to visit a couple of Hooded Crow nests in Stenness. This was a chance for me to ring a new species.

We met up at the rendezvous point and walked a short distance to the first nest which contained three chicks. This was the more advanced nest of the two nest that we were going to visit.

The nest site

Closer look at the nest

One of the nest's residents

With the chicks ringed we moved onto the second nest. This nest contained four chicks which were a bit smaller and the feather development clearly less advanced compared with the chicks in the first nest.

The less advanced feather development

Thanks to Davie for inviting me along and for giving me a new species.

Blackbird chicks

The five Blackbird chicks that hatched in a nest in my garden over the weekend 18/19 May have been doing well and both parents have been busy taking food to the nest.

Yesterday my trainer was able to pay a visit and all five chicks have now been ringed.

If all goes well they should fledge anytime after the 30 May so I'll be keeping an eye out for them appearing in the garden.

A trip to the NRBO

I have just got back from my first visit to the North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory (NRBO) having spent five days over there.

This post will cover just my ringing activities, I have put a post covering my other birding activities on North Ronaldsay on my other blog - Burray Birding

There are two main ringing sites on North Ronaldsay, the first is just up the road from the Observatory (Obs) at Holland House where a number of mist nets are setup in the garden and the other is at the Obs itself. Generally there are two ringing sessions a day at Holland House, one early in the morning and the other in the evening. The traps around the Obs can be used at anytime depending upon what is about.

All of my ringing activities apart from two birds were done at Holland House. The other two birds were caught at the Obs.

I have only listed the birds that I have processed, with any retraps/controls being in ( ). I have also given each species their status, on first mention, from a North Ronaldsay perspective to give them a bit of context.

Sunday 5 May

Having arrived mid-morning my first ringing session was in the evening with Simon from the Obs and Neil, a visiting ringer from Lanarkshire.

This session resulted in Goldfinch [Scarce migrant] 1, Linnet [Common migrant/common breeder] 3 (4) and Meadow Pipit [Common migrant/common breeder] 1.

Monday 6 May

Early start this morning, up at 5:30am and at Holland House by 6am with Mark from the Obs and Neil.

This session produced Chiffchaff [Common migrant/occassional summer resident] 1, Goldcrest [Common migrant] (1), Meadow Pipit 1, Starling [Common resident/breeder] 2 (1) and Wren [Common resident/common breeder] (1).

The evening session with Mark and Neil produced Chiffchaff 1, Linnet 1 (2) and Tree Pipit [Common migrant] 1. A second Tree Pipit was ringed by Neil.

Chiffchaff

Tree Pipit

Tuesday 7 May

This morning's session was with Alison and Kevin from the Obs and Neil. This session produced Blackbird [Common migrant/common resident/breeder] 3, Chiffchaff (1), Goldcrest (2), Redwing [Common migrant] 1, Siskin [Common migrant] 3 (1), Tree Pipit (1) and a Willow Warbler [Common migrant].

The evening session with Kevin and Neil produced Blackbird 1 and Linnet 2 (1).

Wednesday 8 May

The morning session with Simon and Neil was very quiet with just a single Goldfinch. This spring is proving to be a good year for these birds with a flock of 8 being seen this week. To put this into context so far this this year the same number of birds have been ringed as in the entire Obs history.

The evening session with Simon and Neil was a bit more productive and started with a Pied Flycatcher [Common migrant] 1 before tea and after tea Chiffchaff 1 (1), Linnet 1 (2) and a White Wagtail.

Thursday 9 May

The morning session with Mark and Neil was the last session of my stay and produced a retrapped Blackbird, Chiffchaff 2 and Willow Warbler 1.

Willow Warbler

On the way back to the Obs for breakfast I was met by Gavin from the Obs to be informed that he had a bird for me to ring. A few cryptic clues made things sound very interesting. On entering the ringing shed I found Alison and a birder who had just flown in that morning waiting for me. I took the bird from the bag and immediately knew it was a bird I hadn't seen before. It was like a Sedge Warbler but without the characterisitc eye stripe with an olive-brown back that had dark streaks, a pale yellowish breast and an off-white belly with hardly any markings. This was a bird that I have heard in Orkney but never seen, this was a Grasshopper Warbler [Regular migrant].

Grasshopper Warbler

Ringing Summary

A summary of the birds that I processed during my trip:

                               Ringed     Retrapped
      1  Blackbird                4           1
      2  Chiffchaff               5           2
      3  Goldcrest                            3
      4  Goldfinch                2
      5  Grasshopper Warbler      1
      6  Linnet                   7           9
      7  Meadow Pipit             2
      8  Pied Flycatcher          1
      9  Redwing                  1
     10  Reed Bunting             1
     11  Siskin                   3           1
     12  Starling                 2           1
     13  Tree Pipit               1           1
     14  White Wagtail            1
     15  Willow Warbler           2
     16  Wren                                 1
     Totals                      33          19


I'd just like to say a big thank you to Alison, Kevin, Mark and Simon for their time, knowledge and patience and for giving me the opportunity to ring some new species. Hopefully I'll be back out there later in the year.

Goldeneye Weekend

No I haven't been on a James Bond activity weekend, I'm talking about Goldeneye the duck.

This weekend I've headed South on one of my work trips and instead of staying at my usual B&B stop on the way down I was invited to stay with my friend Nigel in Newtonmore and to go out with him checking the Goldeneye nestboxes he has at various locations around his local area.

Nigel has been studying Goldeneye for around the last 25 years and during the breeding season he regularly checks the nestboxes and records when the first egg was layed, how many eggs are laid, whether the nest was successful or not and whether the same bird uses the same nestbox each year. If a nestbox is found to have a duck in it then the duck is ringed and their weight, wing length and tarsus length are also recorded.

A female Goldeneye

The Goldeneye nests in holes in trees. To assist the ducks in finding suitable nesting sites Nigel has erected a number of nesting boxes. These are attached to trees at least six feet above the ground, which in one case during our tour of the boxes was just as well.

The water level is usually nowhere near the base of the tree.

A closer view of a nestbox.

Nature attempting to blend the nestbox in with the surroundings.

Saturday 20 April 

I arrived at Nigel's place at the backend of lunchtime and after a quick bite to eat we set off to the first location. When we arrived at the loch the water level was quite a bit higher than usual. I was glad I had taken my chest waders but even they wouldn't let me get to one of the nest boxes!!

The five boxes that were accessible were all empty including one that had eggs in it on an earlier visit. The box had been robbed by either a Pine Marten or a member of the corvid family, most likely a Jackdaw.

Whilst walking around the site we saw our first Common Sandpipers of the year.

At the second site there were six boxes to check. Three were found to be empty, two had eggs and the third had eggs with a female in attendance. This gave me the opportunity to ring my first Goldeneye and to do the weighing and measuring.

Another good indication that Spring was definitely here was a mixed flock of 30+ birds made up of House Martins, Sand Martins and Swallows all flying back and forth over one of the lochans. There were also another couple of Common Sandpipers and a solitary Pied Wagtail.

We then moved onto the third and final site for the day. This site had four boxes. One was empty, two had eggs and the fourth had eggs and another unringed female. My second Goldeneye to ring.

As we were walking back along the river towards the car we heard a Dipper calling from under a nearby bridge.

Sunday 21 April

This morning we visited the final two sites that Nigel monitors. The first site had five boxes, three of which were empty and the other two holding both eggs and females. Although these two ducks were already ringed they were still weighed and measured.

While working our way around this site we saw 20+ Oystercatchers, 10 Common Gulls, 6+ Redpolls, a couple of Blue Tits, a Coal Tit, a Robin and a Treecreeper. Flying along the river were a pair of Goldeneyes and a couple of Swallows and overhead was a Buzzard which agitated some of the other birds in the area. We also heard some Pink Footed Geese and a Greenshank.

The final site held three boxes. None of them had any Goldeneye eggs, but two of them had been taken over by Jackdaws with one of them holding two Jackdaw eggs, which were a lot smaller than I expected.

We also saw a Little Grebe on the loch.

So at the end of our tour we had visited 23 boxes in total, 15 of which were empty (including the one that had been predated) and eight boxes with eggs of which four had females sitting on the eggs.

Although one of the boxes had lost its eggs since Nigel's last visit there were two boxes that had eggs in which had been empty on his last visit. Also a couple of the boxes had more eggs in them on this visit compared to the last one. So Nigel considered it to have been a successful tour of the boxes.

Back at Nigel's house there were also signs of breeding preparation going on with Song Thrush, Dunnock and Greenfinch all seen collecting nesting material and taking it off to bushes in the garden.

Also in the garden was a Robin, Chaffinches, Blue Tits, a Coal Tit, two Long-tailed Tits and a Rook.

I'd like to thank Nigel for inviting me along and giving me the chance to help out with his project and to ring a new species. I look forward to hearing how the nests get on and hope that at least some of the eggs hatch and the ducklings make it to the water.

Garden ringing

Spent a few hours with my trainer this afternoon doing some whoosh netting in his garden.

We caught a total of 16 birds, 15 of which were new birds consisting of  five House Sparrows, nine Greenfinch and one Blackbird and one retrap which was a Greenfinch which had been ringed in my trainer's garden on a previous session.

There was also a Dunnock and a Song Thrush in the garden but they both kept clear of the net.

Not much activity in my garden yet but hopefully with Spring approaching the birds will start coming back and we can have a ringing session here.