Lancashire wildlife

This morning, Kelvin and I tried to start off the summer colour-ringing/radio tracking project on Twite in the Nant Ffrancon. During the morning we saw 8 Twite in total including a couple of singing males and best of all a colour-ringed bird. This bird was ringed by Matt, Ros and I at Flint in February.

Birds that we did catch were 2 Lesser Redpolls (breeding pair) and 2 Northern Wheatears. The male weighed 45g and was packed full of fat (Fat 5/6). He was enourmous!

We also managed to get lovely views of 4 Ring Ouzel and a singing male Common Redstart.

It was a shame we didn't get any Twite, but it does mean I actually get to have a rest over the next couple of days before the inevitable field work that will separate the men from the boys!

This afternoon, Matt and I joined Rachel in our Twite valley to train with the radio tracking receivers for the up and coming field work of my Masters project.

There was quite a lot of standing around waiting for people to get in position and various prolonged moments when we were acclimatising ourselves with the various technologies we will be using during the fieldwork.

As a result, we set up a few spring traps as there were Wheatears everywhere! Almost every 100 metres through the valley, there was pair 'tacking' away. We were able to catch 3 adult male birds and two of these were ringed by me. This is a new species for me in the hand and they're just lovely!

Really excited for the field work as it will be so beneficial for the future of Twite in Wales and the future of my career! It will be very hard work, but nothing in life worth having comes easy.

Today I took part in a field course for my Herpetology module at Uni and did some reptile surveys at 2 sites in North Wales. We had really great views of the 4 species above (inc 28 Slow Worms) as well as 4 fantastic Sand Lizards at one site. I didn't get any photos of the Sand Lizards as we were trying to minimise disturbance, so I was just pleased to get great views of 2 males and 2 females.

A really enjoyable day and nice to see two UK first for me! - Grass Snake and Sand Lizard.

I haven't quite mastered digiscoping yet...especially when I'm all shakey with excitement!

On sunday, when I was packing the car in Preston, ready to head back to Bangor after the Easter break, I checked Facebook (because I have no life and require Facebook as a life-support!). I noticed that Rob Smallwood posted that there was a Killdeer at Alston Res, Longridge!

I instantly dropped the packing and got into the car to drive the 5 miles to Alston! I got a phone call half way there off Bill Aspin to tell me the bird had flown off! I stopped off at Grimsargh Res to quickly check in case the bird had dropped in, but failed to find anything that would even remotely harm a deer! As a result, I continued to Alston with the hope that it would come back.

Upon arrival, the 15 birders present were running around like headless chickens, so I parked the car and sprinted to the nearest viewing screen. The bird was back!

A superb bird that really showed off during my time viewing the bird. It showed the characteristic double breast band, and when it took flight, it showed the striking orange rump and startlingly white wing bars which reminded me of the inside of a Cream Egg! The call was also very striking and sounded like a cross between a Lapwing and Golden Plover. It was remarkably loud and you could hear it calling even after it departed the wetland at 11.50 (ish...)

Gavin Thomas must be the luckiest man on the planet currently after finding a Killdeer in Ireland 10 days prior to finding it the same/another bird on his local patch in Lancashire! This is a first for Lancashire and a real deserved award for dedicated patchers of Alston (Gavin and Tony Parnell)

My personal thoughts are that the Irish bird and the Alston birds are different after looking at photos of the two birds, but I will leave that to the 'higher ups' to decide.

This morning, Matt and I did a spot of overwintering warbler ringing and came out with a catch of a collybita Chiffchaff, 2 Goldcrest and 3 Long-tailed Tits.

Not an amazing catch, but we put the net in the wrong place, I think, but the site itself is incredible for migrants!

Matt and I met at 04.15 this morning and caught 4 Blackbirds at various sites around Bangor

AH - The first bird was an adult male caught within 10 seconds of the net being up by Aldi carpark
AI - The second bird took a bit of effort on upper Farrar Road but eventually the male landed in the 2nd pocket
AJ - As with the first bird, this adult male was in the net within 15 seconds of putting the net up right in front of Memorial Building!
AK - This was the first, and currently only, female Blackbird that we've caught so far. She was seen fighting off a male in University Gardens and flew straight into our net and is now sporting a lovely orange darvic.

A quick wander round Bangor has revealed a lot of unringed birds, but between Matt and I, we have now seen 4 ringed birds in the field and they are very easy to notice, but take a little bit of practice to be able to read the rings. Hopefully, other observers will have enough patience to give ring-reading a go.

Matt and I woke up early this morning and were set up by 4.20am near Bangor Police Station. We caught two Blackbirds this morning which are now sporting bright shiny colour-rings.
At 6.45, I was picked up at ASDA in Bangor and we headed off to Rhos-on-sea where we had set 2 nets for Turnstone. They weren't exactly playing ball and we eventually fired the net on 6 Ringed Plover including the above adult (probably male) which was rather stunning indeed! This is a new species for me in the UK in terms of ringing, so I was pretty happy! I also managed to see my first 2013 Purple Sandpiper and catch up with some ringing friends I haven't seen for a long time!

An enjoyable, albeit cold, morning.

Matt and I woke up early this morning and were set up by 4.20am near Bangor Police Station. We caught two Blackbirds this morning which are now sporting bright shiny colour-rings.
At 6.45, I was picked up at ASDA in Bangor and we headed off to Rhos-on-sea where we had set 2 nets for Turnstone. They weren't exactly playing ball and we eventually fired the net on 6 Ringed Plover including the above adult (probably male) which was rather stunning indeed! This is a new species for me in the UK in terms of ringing, so I was pretty happy! I also managed to see my first 2013 Purple Sandpiper and catch up with some ringing friends I haven't seen for a long time!

An enjoyable, albeit cold, morning.

I couldn't resist a few more photos from Tuesday's trip to Flint Castle, so hope you enjoy.

In conjunction with BTO Wales, I have started a colour-ringing project on Blackbirds in the grounds of the University and anywhere between. This is to monitor the longevity of the birds, to see if breeding birds are resident or summer migrants, as well an being able to territory map the singing males. We fit an orange darvic ring on the left leg with 2 black digits e.g. AA, A3. This morning we headed out at 04.45 as males were already feeding and attempted to catch a few. Around Bangor, we saw many, but we only managed to catch 3. I say 'only', but I was really pleased with the catch and it's going to be very exciting to wander around the university campus and see colour-ringed Blackbirds!
 AA - Nice adult male that flew straight into the net as we walked away from setting! Hopefully he'll do well as he's our flagship!

 AC - This 2cy male had a superb orange bill that I don't think I've seen in the hand before.
At the last site we tried, we caught a Redwing and a Chaffinch, but the Blackbirds were having none of it!