Garden ringing.

I woke at 06:45am and peered out of the window and saw that there was the first real frost on the ground. As I was working from home today - I got up and stuck a net up in the garden. Not long after, the first Goldfinches were coming down to feed at the feeding station - resulting in 21 being caught. Throughout the remainder of the day a total of 30 birds caught 26 new & 4 recaps.

Goldfinch - 20 new + 1 recap.
Great Tit - 1 recap
Chaffinch - 1 male
Robin - 1
Dunnock - 1 retrap
Blue Tit - 3 - 2 new & 1 recap (from another site further down the road - ringed as a pullus in May this year)
Starling - 2

After the mad rush of Starling in spring - they've only just starting to come into the garden again. Yesterday a flock came into the garden and we managed to count 138 from a photo we took!! Hopefully we can catch a few more.....

Lithuanian Black Headed Gull

1783kms.

Ring read in field at WWT Martin Mere on 06/11/2009.

356216 - Black headed Gull

Age : in the nest (1)

Date : 04-06-1989

Place : Kietaviskes (54.45'N 24.38'E), Kaisiadorys district, Lithuania

Just a few..

Not had time to do much ringing this week as I've been busy with work. However I put the net up in the garden yesterday morning and managed a nice little catch of 14 birds - 11 Goldfinch (10 new & 1 recap), 1 Greenfinch, 1 Dunnock and 1 Blue Tit.

Meanwhile Steve has been out catching Coot, Canada geese & Tufted Duck...

Today I've been out with Sean again - he came over from Halifax to give us a hand with catching and colour ringing some more Coot.... Today we caught - 10 Coot, 1 Tufted Duck, 2 Mallard, 4 Canada Geese and 9 Mute Swan.

So that's that for this week!

In the pipeline for the next coming weeks - both my garden & the Shakerley feeding stations are getting quite busy and Steve has set up another feeding station at one of our sites - so hopefully we'll be netting these over the next few weeks. We're also about to dust off the Teal trap and float it - ready for action. And as winter sets in - that will give us more opportunity in catching more Coot & Gulls. And finally, with the Whooper Swans now back at the Wildfowl & Wetland Trust centres - I'm going to be travelling around the country quite a bit attending various wildfowl catches at Martin Mere, Caerlaverock, Slimbridge and Welney.....

End of week totals.

A good week with 89 birds handled - 76 new, 12 recap and 1 control.

Wren - 1
Goldfinch - 7 new + 1 recap
Chaffinch - 4
Greenfinch - 1
Bullfinch - 2
Willow Tit - 1 new + 2 recap
Blue Tit - 5 new
Great Tit - 3 new + 2 recap
Dunnock - 1
Blackbird - 1
Jay - 1
Tufted Duck - 2
Coot - 35 new + 2 recap
Canada Goose - 10 new + 5 recap
Mute Swan - 2
Black Headed Gull - 1 Norwegian control.

37 Coot colour ringed this week.

''How do you catch your Coot?''

.......is a question that I've been asked many times this week. Since my last blog post on colour ringing Coot - I've had quite a number of e-mails from ringers all over the UK and even one from Norway asking how I catch my Coot. So I thought I would put something on the blog for all to see.

Really - it is quite simple. You'll need a couple loafs of bread and a bit of patience and basically just go feeding the ducks! (Of course with the permission of the landowner first) as soon as a Coot comes near enough to catch it - Go for it! You may however get ''funny'' looks from members of the public - most seem to ignore it - but it can be good PR work!

Whilst Me and Craig where out catching birds - he videoed me catching a bird (see below)

Most of the birds I catch are in the water - so am on my hands/knees when catching - however some birds do wander out of the water and will feed at your feet. They seem to be more confident when the weather gets cold and natural food dries up - I've found November and December to be my most productive months. Also they seem to be more confident when larger wildfowl such as Mute Swan / Canada Goose are surrounding them.

Now that's in parks/lakes where the local wildfowl regularly get fed by the public - however not all Coot are tame and certainly at locations were feeding does not occur they can be ''wild''. However Coot can by caught in duck traps and decoys baited with grain/corn - once they have become accustomed to entering them.

It must be said that once you've got hold of a bird, they can be quite vicious! - they scratch, bite and poop everywhere!!

Ageing Coot.

Birds are aged on their tarsus colour - with adults having bright yellow, orange or even red on the side of the tarsus. Juvenile birds have dull legs - side of tarsus grey gradually becoming yellow/orange. Adults also have a black breast were as juvs have white streaks on the breast. Adults have reddish iris and Juvs have brownish. Size of frontal shield is also useful - smaller in juveniles.

Adult

Juvenile.

So now you know how we catch our Coot - grab some G's and give it a go.....

Feeding station and Coot.

Out again with Craig netting at the Shakerley feeding station.

Jay (1), Blue Tit (2), Great Tit (2), Willow Tit (2), Bullfinch (2), Goldfinch (2), Chaffinch (2), Blackbird (1) and Dunnock (1).

Then onto catching more Coot for the colour ringing project - 7 more marked. Also caught and ringed 5 Canada Geese & 1 Mute Swan.

Martin Mere controls.

When ring reading at WWT Martin Mere yesterday, we read four rings that were from other countries. Three on Icelandic ringed Whooper Swans and one colour ringed Ruff that had been ringed in the Netherlands.

Whooper Swan - A8344 (Red line) was ringed in Skagafjordur area of Iceland in July 2008 as a (3) cygnet as part of a brood of three. There are no records of it visiting WWT Martin Mere last year.

Whooper Swans - A8142 (Darvic S4A) & A8194 (Darvic S5D) (Pink line) are a pair that were ringed on Lake Sandvatn (Iceland) in August 2008 - as non breeders. I first saw them last year at WWT Caerlaverock on 28/10/2008 then next at WWT Martin Mere on 01/11/2008 & 02/11/2008 then they disappeared. It was only when I was carrying out a swan census around the WWT Welney area on 13/01/2009 that I saw the pair in a field just outside of Welney. Then they were back at WWT Martin Mere on 06/02/2009 and were last seen on 31/03/2009. They arrived back at Martin Mere on 08/10/2009 this year. (See below for a map on their movements)

Ruff - (Green line) waiting to get the full details on this bird - but it was ringed at Warns Skarl Kilf in the Netherlands - 566km

Black Headed Gull - 361203 (Yellow line) I read this ring on 01/12/2006 and recently received some information back. It was ringed at Veluwemeer in Ijssoelmeepolders in the Netherlands as a pullus on 07/05/2004. Movement to Martin Mere - 587km.

S4A & S5D pair of Whooper swans - and their movements (below) during 2008/2009