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 

Red-backed Shrike

Its been a while since the blog has been updated.  Spring has been fairly slow going as far as ringing has been concerned. Many birds were late passing through the coastal park.  Highlights were up to 10 red-backed shrikes around the Whitburn area including an adult female in the coastal park Nature Reserve which was trapped and ringed.

(c) John Brown

More Owls

I have been waiting for at least two weeks to go back to Rising Sun CP to try and trap the remaining 2 short-eared owls after all the snow had gone.  I turned up on the site and it was a little breezy and sunny which was not ideal but I was really going for the long-eared owls.  I set the first line of 3 nets and went to the other side of the field to set the next line of nets.  A short-eared was already hunting near the net and was observed flying over the top but soon went into the net, however as I run across the field and when I was at the net the bird managed to escape.  Very frustrating.  I watched for the next two and half hours as 3 short-eareds hunting around and over the nets.  As dusk came though I was in high hopes for a long-eared.  They appeared from the roost earlier than expected and caught me off guard.  It was not long before I trapped 2 in a net together.  As with the last 3, these were both females, one adult and one immature.  Two walkers out for a late evening stroll managed to get great views in the hand and left happy.  Later I had a third long-eared escaped from the net.  I also left that evening feeling like I had been successful but also frustrated that the short-eared managed to escape.  I will just have to keep trying.

Fantastic Four

I had heard of 3 short-eared owls at a local country park.  I gained permission to ring on the land and yesterday I set out to try and trap some of them.  I knew the birds hunted in the late afternoon so I arrived on site at 1330 and started to set up nets in a rough grass field where I had been told they prefer to hunt. As I set up the first line of nets the short-eared owls were already hunting.  I moved to the other side of the field to set the second line of nets and watched one owl fly over the net at least half a dozen times.  Eventually one did make it into the net.  It went quiet from 1530 and as dusk fell I was hoping they would continue hunting or other owls such as long-eared, tawny or barn owl may hunt the same field.  I didn't have to wait long.  The first net check after dark produced a long-eared owl and then a second long-eared in the second line of nets. Bingo! I went to take down the nets only to find another long-eared.  All the long eared owls were adult females so presumably there is a single sex communal roost in the local mixed plantation.

 Short-eared owl © Adrian George

 Long-eared owl © Adrian George

BBC The One Show - Stormie ringing

John was joined by one of the BBC's film crews to record storm petrel ringing on the Isle of Scillies last summer.  Below is the link to a youtube page of the short film.  Very good watch indeed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cKi0Y_F1fno

New feeding station

On Saturday members of the Whitburn Ringing Group and the Coastal Conservation Group joined forces to undertake some habitat management on the Big Mound and to erect a new feeding station in the Nature Reserve.  The feeding station was located near to the stone wall hide and compliments the two new pools which were dug in 2012. Below are some photos of the team and their efforts.