Our usual team place helpers then returned to the Wylye and Avon and some 85 birds were caught and processed
My 25th year of catching swans - Dave of course has done nearer to 50!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V23TkyJ7tw
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
Swans
Mid-July means its time for a weekend of swan catching and ringing. This year was an Abbotsbury year and therefore we went down for the roundup which takes place every two years. The high heat meant that the numbers caught of 600 rather than 8-900 was preferable not just for us but the swans as well. The final few were quickly dealt with and in the end all went very smoothly.
Our usual team place helpers then returned to the Wylye and Avon and some 85 birds were caught and processed
My 25th year of catching swans - Dave of course has done nearer to 50!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V23TkyJ7tw
Our usual team place helpers then returned to the Wylye and Avon and some 85 birds were caught and processed
My 25th year of catching swans - Dave of course has done nearer to 50!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V23TkyJ7tw
Sunday, 7 July 2013
Scottish Escape
My (nearly) annual visit to the Treshnish Isles has just finished. Counts of seabirds by my self and other members of TIARG have been going on since 1971 - though i only started in 2000.
Seabirds have been much in the news in recent years with starving birds and empty ledges a feature. Treshnish did not seem to be as badly hit as other north and east colonies, which is not to say that its all been roses. It certainly hasn't.
So what of this year ? Puffins and Guillemots (the main breeders in daylight) appear to be bringing in good numbers of fish (sand-eels). however the latter seem to be late again, with most birds on eggs, or very small chicks. Its several years since we saw, during our traditional week of oocupancy at the end of June, any jumping youngsters as they repond to their parents calls and guidance to bring them off the cliff and down through the air to the sea below. When they bounce on the rocks as they fall its really quite upsetting.
The exact position we won't know until we publish the report - so I must get on and count the Guillemots from the carefully framed photographs I take to assess numbers (6-7000 birds). Older reports can be found here:
http://www.tiarg.org/
The main matter for concern is the shear scale of the visitor numbers now on the island who on 'good' days seems to swarm over the islands as oil on water. Scottish law permits open access. Not always a good thing.
Highlight? The numbers and noise from the Manx Shearwaters on changeover at one in the morning.
Seabirds have been much in the news in recent years with starving birds and empty ledges a feature. Treshnish did not seem to be as badly hit as other north and east colonies, which is not to say that its all been roses. It certainly hasn't.
So what of this year ? Puffins and Guillemots (the main breeders in daylight) appear to be bringing in good numbers of fish (sand-eels). however the latter seem to be late again, with most birds on eggs, or very small chicks. Its several years since we saw, during our traditional week of oocupancy at the end of June, any jumping youngsters as they repond to their parents calls and guidance to bring them off the cliff and down through the air to the sea below. When they bounce on the rocks as they fall its really quite upsetting.
The exact position we won't know until we publish the report - so I must get on and count the Guillemots from the carefully framed photographs I take to assess numbers (6-7000 birds). Older reports can be found here:
http://www.tiarg.org/
The main matter for concern is the shear scale of the visitor numbers now on the island who on 'good' days seems to swarm over the islands as oil on water. Scottish law permits open access. Not always a good thing.
Highlight? The numbers and noise from the Manx Shearwaters on changeover at one in the morning.
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