There was a decent crowd present when we arrived and the bird was visable almost straight away! It flew across a field into brambles below a large pine tree. The bird then spent the next 35 minutes showing on and off in the long grass. It was very elusive as it skulked in the undergrowth but occasionally sat out in the open which set off all the camera shutters and excited twitchers!
I would estimate that there were about 200 birders present whilst I was there including big names like LGRE, Stu Piner, the famous Craig family etc
Check out that tail!
Brucey, Etienne and I went to the Spinnies this fine winter's morning to have a look for the Tundra Bean Goose that has been present in the area with Greylag Geese on and off for a while now. It really didn't take long to pick the bird up in the flock of Greylag Geese on the estuary as it was so much smaller than them. The 'smokey' neck and head, the two toned slate and orange bill and the bright orange legs stood out well. In flight the dark upper wings and the black and white tail really made the bird stand out compared to the Greylags (especially the small size). A very good North Wales bird.
In the hides at the Spinnies, we enjoyed very good views of Water Rail, Little Egret and the feeders just outside the hides were very busy providing super views of Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Robin, House Sparrow, Reed Bunting, Blackbird and 4 species of Tit.
With the cold weather overnight plummeting to -10oC, the pools were frozen and the air was crisp which really made for an enjoyable morning's birding in North Wales.
Back in the Woods this weekend colour-ringing Blue Tits and furthering my training as a ringer. I am getting a lot more confident with extraction now, and what a better way to spend your weekend that handling birds such as Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Nuthatch, Robin and Goldcrest. 94 birds caught in this ringing session and 27 Blue Tits colour ringed. I managed to fit colour-rings to metal ringed retraps too which was a bonus as we now have some birds in the project that can be aged back to 2009 and before, which may prove to be the defining details of my results!
Obligatory bite from a Blue Tit before release. It's weird, when you want to get birds caught for colour-ringing, the bite isn't as annoying as when you are just metal ringing them...
Sunday morning started with a net in Kane's garden catching 19 birds inc. 10 Goldfinch, 4 Blackbird, 1 Great Tit, 1 Robin, 1 Bullfinch and 2 Dunnock.
Continuing the theme of routine of the past couple of weekends, I ended this weekend at Brockholes NR LWT twitching a goose!! Whilst at Preston Docks trying to catch some BHGulls, I got a text off Bill Aspin telling me about a Brent Goose at Brockholes. This was a site 2nd and the first one was a long time ago in the early 2000's long before I started going. Being so close, I thought I had to go, so I left Chris at Preston Station to get the train and I rushed off to Brockholes to meet about 25 other birders watching a Dark-bellied Brent Goose across the Ribble, in a field. This is not only a new race for Brockholes, I believe it's a new race for me in Lancashire (I could be mistaken!)
Throughout the night we caught 77 Birds: 50 Dunlin, 13 Knot, 7 Redshank, 5 Oystercatcher and 2 adult drake Mallard.
My first SCAN wader ringing of 2012 occurred today on Weedy beach between Bangor Harbour and Porth Penrhyn. A rather impressive catch of 171 Redhshank, 5 Oystercatcher and 2 Grey Heron was made. Sadly, because I was off twinkling when the net was fired, I wasn't present to see the Grey Herons in the hand, but I could hear them squawking away! I personally processed 27 Redshank and extracted about 17 birds which I started to get the hang of by the end (I haven't done a great deal of Cannon-net extractions in the past, so was pleased that I didn't struggle too much).
(Above) 2CY bird - retained juvenile Tertails showing a 'saw toothed' pattern where the weaker areas of feather containing white pigmentation gets worn away. This bird is particularly obvious
(Above) 2cy bird - retained juvenile primary feathers being rather worn at the tips, rather narrow and pointed, and also being a paler brown than adult birds
After a rather nice Pizza lunch back at Kane's (where Pink, Pink, Grey and Orange, Yellow, Red were observed in the garden) we made a quick trip to Brockholes LWT as an Egyptian Goose has recently been investigating the site, so I was keen to see it as it's a site first, so a real 'Blocker' in terms of Brockholes listing! It took a short while to pick up, but the bright pink legs helped it stand out whilst asleep on 'Meadow Lake' (It will always be called Main Pool to me)
After a very inspiring talk from Birding Frontiers leader Martin Garner the night prior, I was eager to get out birding. During the afternoon, I had to endure possibly the most difficult exam I have ever had the misfortune of sitting and was in a bit of a depressed mood. I therefore decided that I would give the Bangor Harbour gull roost a go.
2012 has started with a bang due to 9 of us young bird ringers making a trip (my first trip) over to Ireland, to Galway where we spent 4 days catching gulls at Nimmo's Pier. 2011's trip saw a really good number of Common Gull being ringed, whereas 2012 saw only 1 Common with a supporting cast of 19 Black-headed Gulls and 4 Herring Gulls being hand caught.
8/9 - Me, Gillian, Craig, Brucey, Birdman, Kane, Ciaran, Andy 'Bigman' Denton (and, off camera, Heather.)
Nimmo's Pier has been a place of legend, personally, for the last 5 or so years due to its regular wintering gulls. As a larophile myself, I hated leaving the pier and heading back to the flat as anything could drop in at any moment! This week has seen a large influx of white-winged gulls in Britain and Nimmo's Pier didn't disappoint with at least 10 Iceland Gulls being seen along with the bird photographed twice below, which I photographed not realising it was actually a Kumlien's Gull! The two-tone bill, pale eye, dark marking on the underwing, and smokey tips to the primaries show this to be a 2nd winter Kumlien's Gull, although I will freely accept comments off my readers.
Iceland Gulls - 4x1st Winters, 2x2nd Winter, 2x 3rd Winter, 1x 4th Winter, 1x Adult Winter
In addition to the plethora of Iceland Gulls, our last morning was spent catching a few more Black-heads at Waterside, Galway. I had packed my camera, so I wasn't able to get any photos of interesting birds that happened to come into view. Sadly, it wasn't long before I picked up something that got the heart racing.| Species | Full Grown | Pulli | Retrap | Total |
| Shag | 1 | 42 | 0 | 43 |
| Manx Shearwater | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Mute Swan | 0 | 0 | 17 | 17 |
| Canada Goose | 14 | 0 | 7 | 21 |
| Shelduck | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Mallard | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Teal | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Wigeon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Tufted Duck | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Coot | 12 | 2 | 2 | 16 |
| Moorhen | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Little Egret | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Kestrel | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Oystercatcher | 54 | 0 | 23 | 77 |
| Lapwing | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Sanderling | 28 | 0 | 0 | 28 |
| Dunlin | 48 | 0 | 2 | 50 |
| Redshank | 30 | 0 | 0 | 30 |
| Turnstone | 12 | 0 | 2 | 14 |
| Curlew | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Black-headed Gull | 16 | 152 | 0 | 168 |
| Common Gull | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Herring Gull | 28 | 0 | 0 | 28 |
| Great Black-backed Gull | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Lesser Black-backed Gull | 15 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| Puffin | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Razorbill | 10 | 10 | 2 | 22 |
| Guillemot | 2 | 5 | 0 | 7 |
| Woodpigeon | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Stock Dove | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Collared Dove | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Barn Owl | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Tawny Owl | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Long-eared Owl | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Great Spotted Woodpecker | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Swallow | 24 | 9 | 0 | 33 |
| Pied Wagtail | 9 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Robin | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Dunnock | 7 | 0 | 5 | 12 |
| Wren | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Blackbird | 8 | 4 | 0 | 12 |
| Song Thrush | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Redwing | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Sedge Warbler | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Reed Warbler | 5 | 28 | 1 | 34 |
| Grasshopper Warbler | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Common Whitethroat | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Blackcap | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Willow Warbler | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Chiffchaff | 11 | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| Goldcrest | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Long-tailed Tit | 8 | 0 | 7 | 15 |
| Blue tit | 67 | 15 | 24 | 106 |
| Great Tit | 32 | 30 | 9 | 71 |
| Coal Tit | 4 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
| Treecreeper | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Nuthatch | 2 | 6 | 0 | 8 |
| Pied Flycatcher | 9 | 28 | 2 | 39 |
| Starling | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Tree Sparrow | 2 | 94 | 0 | 96 |
| House Sparrow | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Chough | 0 | 13 | 0 | 13 |
| Chaffinch | 18 | 4 | 0 | 22 |
| Greenfinch | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Goldfinch | 15 | 0 | 4 | 19 |
| Siskin | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Lesser Redpoll | 7 | 0 | 3 | 10 |
| Linnet | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Bullfinch | 6 | 0 | 3 | 9 |
| Reed Bunting | 5 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Yellowhammer | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Total | 578 | 415 | 123 | 1116 |
| Species | 62 | 23 | 21 | 71 |
After seeing my photo of the Slimbridge Lesser Scaup on Gillian's blog, I felt that I was wrong to just throw it onto my external hard-drive back-up. I thought I'd share it with my followers!
Kane had to work so Gillian, Ciaran and I spent all day around the reserve seeing the Bewick's, the Whitefronts, the Bitterns and the captive species including the superb Wader Aviary where you can be in the same space as Black-winged Stilt, Avocet and Redshank. This is also the enclosure where the Spoon-billed Sandpipers will be kept in the summer months....a return trip is in order!
Kane and I spent all morning at Atherton Woods with 3 nets up at 2 feeding stations. A newly erected feeding station towards the centre of the wood really kept Kane busy! We decided that I would go off and do the ringing whilst he extracted as this was better for my totals and he was able to extract much quicker. We finished the session with over 70 birds processed and 25 newly colour-ringed Blue Tits (I liked the combination of White White Mauve, so thought I'd include the photo above!). I also had the privilege of ringing my first Treecreeper that I was really excited about as I've been wanting to handle one of these since 2007 when I saw one in the hand for the first time with Mark Breaks.
As we approach the Christmas break, everyone is finally back from their far-flung jobs, so Ciaran, Craig, Gillian, Kane, Heather and myself met up at Kane's on Saturday night and went for a Christmas meal, and to celebrate 40 years of the Loganhurst Ringing Group set up by Steve and Tim Christmas.
