Neck collared Mute Swan from the Netherlands

This was surprise one morning and stretched my skills in reading neck collar rings to their max!

PN38 at Cotehill (Phil Bloor)

This mute swan first appeared on Cotehill, Aberdeenshire on 9 October 2017 and was also seen the following day.  It was originally ringed as a juvenile female one year, two months and three days previously on 7 August 2016 in Zuidhorn, Zuiderdijk in the Netherlands.  A total distance of 699.2 km away.

However, following contact with the Dutch ringers it transpired that following ringing it stayed in the Groningen region of the Netherlands until at least 14 April 2017 before being seen at Loch of Strathbeg on 20 June 2017.  There was also a later report of a neck collared mute swan on Meikle Loch the day before it appeared on Cotehill but was too far the observer to read it, presumably it was this bird.

Phil B

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.

Greylags AFA and AFC

A new breeding “colony” of greylags appeared in Glen Gairn in the early 2000s. In an effort to determine where these birds may have originated from and where they winter, an effort was made in summer 2008 to catch and neck collar some of the goslings. To cut a long story short, when we approached the family crèche of about 40 birds in mid July, they nearly all used that basic fundamental skill and ability known to most birds as flight and merrily took off and flew around and away. There were however 2 stragglers which we managed to catch and collar. On release one made a u-turn and white water rafted away down the river. Both have since been resighted back at the breeding area in 2009 and in the last few weeks by several observers still together at Tarland, c15km away from their breeding grounds.
Photos by Harry Scott

We chose the collar AFA because it is a local Aiberdeen Doric dialect word meaning awful or very while AFC is a local abbreviation standing for an “Afa Fitba Club” (better known as Aberdeen FC). As Skitts says if we could use the collar ARE we could have AFC ARE AFA…..but the letters R and E aren’t used on collars….shame.

CNJ

Whilst oot and aboot, Walter again proved himself as a star spotter for colour marked birds! With a sighting of a collared Greylag Goose near Kintore.
CNJ was feeding near the road in a flock of about 300. Speedy information from Bob showed that it was originally ringed and collared at Loch Eye in 2005. It has been seen in Grampian a couple of times as well as on the Icelandic breeding grounds last May.