Don't Panic! Gull sightings delay!

For those of you that are avid ring readers one of the great thrills is the near instant response that you can get when you send in a sighting of a colour ringed bird. Unfortunately from time to time there is a delay. Our colour ringed large gull project is experiencing such a delay at the moment. The scheme coordinator Euan Fergusson is currently ringing abroad and may not have had internet access for a couple of months - despite taking his database away so he could respond to sightings. Please be patient as Euan is fantastic at responding most of the time. I am sure when he returns from his travels normal service will resume, but I suspect there will be a considerable backlog to work through.

Leys CES 2014

The CES at Leys started in 2008 and in now in it's seventh year. Six nets are erected from 6am until noon on 12 occasions from May until early September. It means an early start to have all the nets open for 6am. It was an easy year as far as weather goes with no sessions cancelled but one or two were curtailed due to showers or windy conditions. 

The site is a loch that has naturally colonised with a mix of sedges, reed bed and willow carr. Boardwalks have been build into the wetlands to allow safe access when water levels are high.

Setting up the nets c Walter Burns

This year was the second best ever for the number of birds ringed. 453 new birds were caught during the 12 sessions this year. We had good numbers of adults of most species and productivity was good. Sedge Warblers did particularly well this year with 102 juveniles ringed.  Wrens had a superb year with 47 Juveniles ringed compared with 4 in 2012 and 23 in 2013. Nine Reed Bunting juveniles were ringed compared with none in  2012 and 7 in 2013.

Highlights this year were a pair of Grasshopper Warblers, a juvenile Redstart, a juvenile Water Rail and a Reed Bunting ringed in 2008 and not caught since.

Water rail c Walter Burns

Garden Warbler c Walter Burns

Grasshopper warbler c Walter Burns

Thanks to Leys Charitable Trust for permssion to use the site and to the Ranger Thys Simpson for his help and encouragement.

Those involved in helping during the 2014 season were Phil Bacon, Walter and Ann Burns, Tony Hurst, Dennis McCullough, Harry Richardson, Cairns Smith and Jenny Weston.

Ringing will continue over the winter. This autumn we have already ringed a Jay as well as sixty plus Lesser Redpolls with a few Common Redpolls among them.

Alister Clunas

Wader Colour-Ringing

Following a busy spring and summer colour-ringing/darvicing/flagging some of our commoner wader species we are now busy searching for them and ringing more along the coast and estuaries.

We’d be very grateful for any sightings.

40 Curlew chicks were colour-ringed/darviced this summer in Upper Donside, NE Scotland while 80 were marked in Orkney.

 Photo by Jenny Lennon

87 Peesies/Lapwing chicks (2+ week old) were colour-ringed/flagged this summer in NE Scotland, mainly around the Ythan Estuary but also some in the hills.

A recent catch on the Ythan added another 19 marked birds to this total, flag on right leg, opposite to the chicks.

            Photo by Morag Jones

6 redshank chicks were colour-ringed/flagged this summer. With Ewan’s magic pied piper Redshank Party tape a further 220 have been marked so far on the Ythan during August.

Some of these birds appear to have set up wee territories but many have moved on already.

Photo by Raymond Duncan

 90 Oystercatchers were darviced near Ballater on 29/03/14. These included birds previously ringed in Wales, Dumfries & Galloway and Highland so there’s every chance some will be heading back to wintering grounds near you. Another 30 city roof dwelling chicks were also darviced.

Photo by Hairy Stott

 We have also had some success adding marked birds to some of our other long term wader projects including Black-tailed Godwit, Greenshank and Golden Plover so please keep checking those flocks.

August/September really has got to be the most exciting time for wader passage. Whilst looking at waders up at Strathbeg Paul Baxter saw a colour-ringed/darvicd Little Stint which had been ringed a few days previously in SW Norway whilst Ewan joined our Highland neighbours for a ringing session up at Findhorn Bay where they caught 4 Knot amongst other waders and terns, one of which had been colour-ringed and flagged in Canada!

Good luck.

Raymond Duncan

2013 Totals

The group totals for 2013 are in. 11,601 birds of 113 species were processed. 8632 were full grown birds, and 2969 were pullus. The only new species for the group was Black Tern.

The top 10 species were - 

		Full Grown	Pullus	Total
1	Swallow	1219	241	1460
2	Arctic Tern	946	92	1038
3	Goldfinch	621	25	646
4	Herring Gull	497	108	605
5	Sandwich Tern	62	472	534
6	Chaffinch	446	12	458
7	Tree Sparrow	180	178	358
8	Sedge Warbler	197	152	349
9	Waxwing	326	0	326
10	Linnet	194	124	318

Roof-Nesting Oystercatchers

Aberdeen is famous for its roof-nesting oystercatchers.  We have been putting Darvics on chicks since 1997. The rings are white (a few yellow) with a unique combination of a letter and two digits reading down the leg  (see picture).  We have had a lot of sightings in the autumn and winter. Some locally but most from other estuaries round the UK including Musselburgh, the Wash, the Exe, north Wales, north-west England and Dublin.  Keep them coming in.  Had our first bird from Arbroath recently.  However, what we really want more of are sightings of birds during the breeding season. We have heaps of birds out there with Darvics on and we need more sightings.  Can observers please look carefully at any oystercatchers during the breeding season and check if they have a Darvic on the left leg.  The birds will  not necessarily be on roofs.  We have had birds bred on roofs nesting on the ground and vice versa.  

A prize of a bottle of whisky is offered to anyone who finds one particular bird – N87!

Any sightings contact Alistair Duncan on alistair@cairncry.freeserve.co.uk

S65, sighted at Foryd Bay, Caernarfon, North Wales on 21/01/12 (Emyr Evans)

Waxwings on the move

We know it’s not a Waxwing winter when our friends in Orkney and Fair Isle haven’t ringed any.

However, being the Waxwing capital of Britain (thanks to our location and large amount and variety of ornamental rowan trees and tree cotoneasters, well done the council!), we were lucky to have birds arrive in Aberdeen in November and a decent flock reached about 150 birds in early December. We managed to colour-ring 40 in December but usually the birds were always one step ahead of us and we’ve since ringed none so far in 2014. About 150 birds appeared to be set to winter in Aberdeen as they were still raiding the last of the Mistle Thrush rowan trees in mid-January with plenty tree cotoneaster available once the rowans finally ran out.

However 120 on 23rd January was our last 3 figure count. This dropped to 32 on 26th January and last few days of January only one flock of 6 was reported, by Jane Reid down at the University. Having studied Waxwings for many winters now, it was fair to assume this was them dispersing a bit locally during the transition period between finishing off the hardest Mistle Thrushes rowan trees and switching to tree cotoneaster. WRONG!

4 different colour-ring sightings from 3 different locations away from Aberdeen, all on the 1st and 2nd of February indicated that there had in fact been an exodus of birds away from Aberdeen altogether.

Yellow/light green, also ringed in Aberdeen on 6/12/13 and last resighted here on 23rd January and White/red ringed in Aberdeen on 6/12/13 and last resighted just after Xmas were both observed together in a flock of 8 birds 121km SW at Methil in Fife on 2nd February by Kathy Evans

Red/orange, ringed in Aberdeen on 6/12/13 and still here on 26th January was photographed 92kmSW in Dundee on 2nd February by Gus Guthrie and Barry Farquharson.

Orange/blue, ringed in Aberdeen on 28/12/13 and last resighted here on 23rd January was photographed 520km SE in Aylsham, Norfolk on 1st and 2nd February by Carol Foxe and Carl Chapman.

A big thank you to all these observers for their very timely sightings which tied in with our declining counts and combined to confirm when our Aberdeen flock dispersed and just how far and quickly some of them had travelled.

Do the birds know there aren’t many Waxwings in the country this winter and hence more rowans to be found elsewhere rather than staying and switching to tree cotoneaster?

So it looks like we won’t have many wintering with us in Aberdeen after all. The real pity about this is that a Norwegian darvic ringed bird (yellow ring with black engraving on right leg) was seen amongst a flock of 120 in Bridge of Don, Aberdeen on 23rd January but couldn’t be read. I felt quite hopeful somebody might be able to catch up with it and read it or photograph it in the next few months since they were here to stay. WRONG AGAIN!

So please look out for Waxings in a rowan tree near you. Grampian RG will be delighted to hear about any colour-ringed birds while Kjell Snoot of Sunmore RG in West Norway will be delighted to hear about any darviced birds.

There is also the chance of a returning ringed bird from last winter’s large invasion. Thanks to Bob Freeman who managed to photograph Black/blue/grey (what a terrible combination, well done Bob) in Jarrow, South Tyneside on 11th January. This was a returning bird from last winter, ringed in Westhill, Aberdeen on 31/3/13.

Thank you very much.

Raymond Duncan

Pinkies Galore

It has been some time since any significant numbers of pink-footed geese have been ringed in the UK, with the group's last catch being 20 birds at the Loch of Skene in 2008. However when we heard colleagues at the WWT had 2 GPS neck collars to fit on 2 pink-footed geese, we were keen to help out. With a stalwart group baiting and checking a site on the outskirts of Aberdeen with a mixture of tatties, carrots and grain a small catch looked imminent.

After weeks of dedication all things aligned and we were set to take a small cannon net catch of pink-footed geese. With the birds finally on the bait around lunch time, 30 were in the area and I gave Carl Mitchell from the WWT the "3.2.1. Fire" command  only to be met by "hold on a minute I need to just charge the firing box up first". Luck was on our side and as the box charged up, so did the geese. With the box charged we took a catch, with the net flying beautifully and catching an incredible 91 pink-footed geese - our second largest ever catch.

Pink-footed geese waiting to be extracted (Euan Ferguson)

With a good team of 12 we were able to quickly extract and process all birds, fitting each with a neck collar containing a unique 3 letter combination for reading in the field. Two special birds were fitted with incredibly light weight GPS neck collars to track their movements as part of a pilot project to gather information about feeding and roost site use in the UK.

High tech pink-foot (Euan Ferguson)

So far the birds have remained fairly local. We will bring you updates on their movements later in the winter and hopefully when they have safely arrived back in Iceland.

Ythan Estuary Attracts Foreigners

The food rich mud and the safety of sandbanks on the Ythan Estuary near Newburgh provide resident birds with a perfect larder and resting area. This location is also attractive to migrating birds as they pass on their journey south. Other visitors arrive as part of their post breeding dispersal. Among the tourists to the Ythan during the autumn of 2013 have been a number of colour-ringed and “darviced” birds.

Viking gull invasion?

August saw a number of Scandinavian Black-headed Gulls arrive. These included:

Green J054 – ringed Breiavatnet, Stavanger, Rogaland, Norway on 16 July 2013 and seen on the Ythan on 28 August 2013.

White J2CE – ringed Mølledammen, Time, Rogaland, Norway on 07 April 2012 and seen on the Ythan on 28 August 2013.

White J3UP - ringed Langvannet, Lørenskog, Akershus & Oslo, Norway on 08 April 2013 and seen on the Ythan on 28 August 2013.

White J3U5 – ringed Vågen, Stavanger sentrum, Stavanger, Rogaland, Norway on 16 February 2012 and seen on the Ythan on 29 August 2013.

White VM47 – ringed in Denmark and seen on the Ythan on 28 August 2013.

Other northern travellers included:

Lapwing - White J34C – ringed Hemnes, sør, Karmøy, Rogaland, Norway on 12 June 2013 and seen on the Ythan on 29 August 2013.

 Sandering  G5RGRY – ringed at Zackenberg, Greenland on 20 June 2012 and seen on the Ythan on 06 Auguat 2013.

Sanderling Y6YWWW – ringed Griend west, Netherlands on 16  August 2012 and seen on the Ythan on 28 August 2013.

Dunlin White CST – ringed near Gdansk, Poland on 25 July 13 and seen on the Ythan on 11 November 2013.

The maps below illustrate the above bird movements to the Ythan.

Red = Lapwing, Yellow = Black-headed Gulls

Green = Sanderling, Orange = Dunlin

If you are lucky enough to see a colour-ringed bird please report it through http://blx1.bto.org/euring/lang/pages/colour_rings.jsp

MS 

A spot of bad luck!

In the 35+ years since the formation of Grampian ringing group, only a handful of spotted redshanks (probably less than 10) have been ringed by the group. This autumn was quite remarkable for the group as one night while ringing greenshank and redshank a spotted redshank was caught - the first for over 5 years! Only a few days later another two were caught together - all three were juveniles. It is fantastic to see this species in the hand and really appreciate the differences with it's commoner cousins. We were very surprised when we saw the species appear in a recent batch of recoveries. The first of the Autumn, caught on the Ythan Estuary 31 August 2013 had been found dead on the 6th of November on a Nature Reserve near la Rochelle on the West coast of France. This is the first recovery of the species for the group and only the 14th recovery for the BTO ringing scheme.

The unlucky spotted redshank found, later found dead in France 1216km further on it's migration (Ewan Weston)