White/Red/Yellow
White/Red/Orange
White/Red/Blue
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Waxwings at last
Its been a long winter waiting for any sign of a waxwing invasion, but at last a few have arrived. Chris, Walter and Ann caught three birds today in Kintore so keep an eye out for these now colour-ringed birds if move through the country.
White/Red/Yellow
White/Red/Orange
White/Red/Blue
White/Red/Yellow White/Red/Orange White/Red/Blue
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Walter's Waxwing
Raymond Duncan has suggested that I put this info on the blog as he feels that it will be of interested.
Last year my Ann and I were lucky to have the pleasure of appox 22 Waxwings in our garden for about 16 weeks. On Raymond's advice we "spiked" apples on various trees in our garden and every day without fail they turned up and ate us out of apples. I'm scared to think what we spent on apples for all those weeks - but it was certainly worth every penny.
We assisted Chris Jones and Derek Robertson to trap and ring 32 Waxwings in and around our garden. And then sadly they all left. This year as you will know has been a very poor year for Waxies. We have had one in the garden for about 2 week until yesterday when we had 4. But the really good news is that one was ringed and it was a last years coloured ringed bird.
Raymond thinks that this is only the 3rd record in the UK of a ringed Waxwing returning. I wonder what are the chances of a ringed Waxwing returning to the same garden almost 12 months to the day. Ann's records show that it was ringed on the 18 Feb 2009 and it turned up on the 22nd.
I hope this is of interest to you as it certainly makes ringing all the more worth while.
Walter
Last year my Ann and I were lucky to have the pleasure of appox 22 Waxwings in our garden for about 16 weeks. On Raymond's advice we "spiked" apples on various trees in our garden and every day without fail they turned up and ate us out of apples. I'm scared to think what we spent on apples for all those weeks - but it was certainly worth every penny.
We assisted Chris Jones and Derek Robertson to trap and ring 32 Waxwings in and around our garden. And then sadly they all left. This year as you will know has been a very poor year for Waxies. We have had one in the garden for about 2 week until yesterday when we had 4. But the really good news is that one was ringed and it was a last years coloured ringed bird.
Raymond thinks that this is only the 3rd record in the UK of a ringed Waxwing returning. I wonder what are the chances of a ringed Waxwing returning to the same garden almost 12 months to the day. Ann's records show that it was ringed on the 18 Feb 2009 and it turned up on the 22nd.
I hope this is of interest to you as it certainly makes ringing all the more worth while.
Walter
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Jocky the Cormo FCX
News of darviced cormorant FCX (now christened Jocky by observer/photographer David Gray) back at Watermeads Country Park, Leicestershire for its 3rd winter.
Photos at home on the nest (Chris Jones) and away (David Gray) shown.
Raymond
Monday, 8 February 2010
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!
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!
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Another Norwegian Gull
Just days after we caught our fantastic white darvic common gull we caught another Norwegian ringed bird in our Westhill garden. This one wasn't colour-ringed so we wait to hear where its from.
Yes Ewan that makes two foreign controls in a week!
With the snow gone the Aberdeen gulls are back to patrolling the local schools for their lunch and aren't interested in bread in gardens any more.
Ewan & Jenny
Yes Ewan that makes two foreign controls in a week!
With the snow gone the Aberdeen gulls are back to patrolling the local schools for their lunch and aren't interested in bread in gardens any more.
Ewan & Jenny
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.
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.
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Gullalicious
It’s been a few months since Danny kindly set up the GRG blog, so we thought it was about time that something was posted on it!
With the amazing snowfall we have had it has given us the opportunity to do some winter gull ringing – a GRG speciality. So far we have had reasonable success and a few failures, mainly due to the depth of snow. A total of 9 herring gulls, 5 black-headed gulls, 80 common gulls and 1 rook have been caught. Amongst these there have been a small number of interesting recoveries, some of which we have already found out ringing details.
The first ringing details we received were of a GRG bird that was ringed at Culterty field station in Newburgh by Paul Doyle on 30/6/1995 as a chick and captured on 2/1/2010 in the park outside Skitts’ house in Newburgh with two other birds. Nice to see an older bird and one that was reared in the region too.
Over in Westhill we have had the lion’s share of the success with 5 Herring gulls, 2 black-headed gulls, 78 common gulls and a rook caught in our wee garden with Tesco reduced counter bread. This has included an old GRG bird and a nice Norwegian ringed and colour-ringed bird. The GRG bird was ringed at the Don mouth on 25/2/2001. We were able to get the history of the Norwegian bird within a few hours on a Norwegian colour ringing website. The bird had been ringed as an adult male in Tromso on 23/4/2004, was sighted twice that June at the same site, again in June 2005, July 2007 and then nothing until it turned up in a catch of 27 gulls in the garden on 6/1/2010. The distance from Tromso to Westhill is 1727km and it was 2084 days since it was originally ringed!
Ewan & Jenny
With the amazing snowfall we have had it has given us the opportunity to do some winter gull ringing – a GRG speciality. So far we have had reasonable success and a few failures, mainly due to the depth of snow. A total of 9 herring gulls, 5 black-headed gulls, 80 common gulls and 1 rook have been caught. Amongst these there have been a small number of interesting recoveries, some of which we have already found out ringing details.
The first ringing details we received were of a GRG bird that was ringed at Culterty field station in Newburgh by Paul Doyle on 30/6/1995 as a chick and captured on 2/1/2010 in the park outside Skitts’ house in Newburgh with two other birds. Nice to see an older bird and one that was reared in the region too.
Over in Westhill we have had the lion’s share of the success with 5 Herring gulls, 2 black-headed gulls, 78 common gulls and a rook caught in our wee garden with Tesco reduced counter bread. This has included an old GRG bird and a nice Norwegian ringed and colour-ringed bird. The GRG bird was ringed at the Don mouth on 25/2/2001. We were able to get the history of the Norwegian bird within a few hours on a Norwegian colour ringing website. The bird had been ringed as an adult male in Tromso on 23/4/2004, was sighted twice that June at the same site, again in June 2005, July 2007 and then nothing until it turned up in a catch of 27 gulls in the garden on 6/1/2010. The distance from Tromso to Westhill is 1727km and it was 2084 days since it was originally ringed!
Ewan & Jenny
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