Recent Recoveries from across the North Sea

As with many east coast ringing sites we ring many continental blackbirds during the autumn.  Although we know they are from the continent we do not know exactly where from, however in a batch of recent recovery reports from the BTO we had a report of one of our blackbirds that was ringed on the 8th November 2011was taken by a cat in Vastervik, SWEDEN on the 13th May 2013!! Although no surprise this is the first bird from Whitburn that has been recorded in Sweden.

Summer adventures

Summer at Whitburn can be very quiet so we go off ringing around the local area and occasionally get over to Cumbria and up to Scotland. Owls seem to have faired badly this year with tawny owls down on last year but NO long-eared owl nests have been located this year.  A single brood of two little owls and the adult female were ringed.  Raptors have also done poorly with small brood sizes.  Seven peregrine chicks were ringed in Cumbria.  A total of 21 Kestrels were ringed in and around the Sunderland area.  A weekend trip to Scotland to ring golden eagles ended well with a single male chick ringed however two sites that produced young failed.  Small broods and many failures seems to have been reflected in the Aberdeenshire population too.

peregrine © Adrian George 

Waders seem to have done well this year with quite a few chicks being found and ringed.  Below are a selection of chicks found so far.

oystercatcher © Adrian George 

snipe © Adrian George 

lapwing © Adrian George 

 

lapwing © Adrian George 

curlew © Adrian George 

curlew © Adrian George 

As part of some recent work I have been required to find nests.  Along with the waders above I have located several meadow pipit nests and two skylark nests, one of the later shown below.

skylark © Adrian George 

A friend in Scotland has an excellent burn for catching dippers and kingfishers.  We managed to catch the adult male kingfisher however the female knew the score and has repeatedly avoided the net.

Kingfisher © Adrian George