Urban nesting oystercatchers

Oystercatchers again! 

This year we are carrying out a census of urban breeding oystercatchers in Aberdeen and round about. We would be grateful if you would report to us any breeding, or suspected breeding, pairs of roof or ground nesting oystercatcher in the city or suburbs. 

Please contact any of us as below:

Alistair Duncan -  alistair (at) cairncry.freeserve.co.uk
Raymond Duncan  - Raymond (at) waxwing.fsnet.co.uk
Brian Pirie  -  bpirie8910 (at) btinternet.com

Also remember to look out for any Darvic ringed birds. There is still a reward of a litre of Grouse for a sighting of N87 white!

Leucistic Oystercatcher chick

On Friday 27 June Brian Pirie and I went to Hazlehead Academy to investigate a report of a possible albino oystercatcher chick. When we got there we found the bird was leucistic. Leucism affects the plumage of birds as they lack the pigment cells which are responsible for melanin production. We caught and ringed it. Frustratingly neither of us had a camera but the janitor, Wendy Landragon, took some shots on her Smart Phone. It was a striking looking bird. The plumage was a pale brown/fawn colour on the normally black parts with a blue-grey eye. We would be pleased to have any sightings of this bird (and any others with coded rings on); the leucistic youngster has a white ring with the code T37. Please contact Alistair Duncan on alistair @ cairncry.freeserve.co.uk. Many thanks to Wendy for the photographs.

Ally and Brian

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)

Inland Oyc Movement

Fully grown Oystercathers are mainly ringed on the coast, but for the past few years we've had several cannon net fires at roosts inland during spring.

Oystercatcher FH24678, ringed on 27th March last year at Tarland was retrapped by Richard du Feu from North Lancs Ringing Group, who have also been catching good numbers of Oystercatchers inland, at Heysham on 22 January. This bird could be a breeder on its way up north. Thanks to Richard for letting us know.

Photos Ewan Weston

Latest recoveries

The always long-awaited pack of recoveries arrived last week on Raymond's doormat. Among the usual Shag and Cormorant darvic sightings there was the information back on a few birds we had been waiting for.

Oystercatchers
This included information back on another of the three controls we caught last March near Aboyne in the big oystercatcher catches. One was a bird ringed in 2001 at Llanelli Docks as an adult. Another bird from this catch was found dying locally in summer 2009 by a member of the public.



Starling
Finally a report back on a Westhill control Starling caught in March 2009 which was a bit of an abmigrant having been ringed in Wick in January 2008.


Tawny Owl
Another interesting one is a tawny owl chick that was ringed by John Massie in June 2008 that was found dead on the road in Buckie, 54km away in July 09. Quite a distance for a tawny owl!

Swallow
Star bird goes to an adult male swallow ringed at flick-netting on the banks of the Dee in 2004, recovered in Dundee, dead last November. Not much you might think but its Wasbank, Dundee, Kwazulu Natal, SOUTH AFRICA! Thats 10,000km eachway, each year since it was first ringed making 100,000km clocked up in the last five years - WOW!

An oystercatcher to Ireland

We have about 200 pairs of oystercatchers nesting on flat, gravel covered roofs in Aberdeen; the largest such population in Europe. Alistair Duncan and other have been putting Darvics on them since 1996 and have had a number of sightings from across the UK including north west England, north and south Wales.



N57 was ringed in Aberdeen on 31 May 2007 as a chick at the cricket club. On the first day of the 2010 the bird was seen just outside Dungarvan town, County Waterford, Ireland by Mícheál Cowming. This is only the second or third sighting from southern Ireland so is great news. The only roof nesting pair in Ireland that we know of is in Cork.