Saturday 11 December 2010

You've been collared!!

Myself and Steve made our way over onto Anglesey at Rhoscolyn this morning, where we netted Ian's feeders in his garden. An early start was decided to maximise our catch rate throughout the morning, which ended in a total of 31 birds being caught.

Blue Tit, Great Tit, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Greenfinch, Goldfinch and Collard dove provided us with a rather successfull morning for species variety. Having never had the privelege of a Collard dove in the hand before, once my eyes locked on to a grey bird in the bottom shelf of the net, it was a quick sprint to the garden and the bird was safely in the hand. The reason for this dash was mainly because we haven't yet caught a Collard dove and they are renowned for escaping from mist-nets. A great finish to an interesting morning.

Monday 6 December 2010

Wader Weekend

I thought I would take a look back to September 2009 when I first moved into Bangor. This was to study my BSc Environmental Conservation Degree for the next 3 years of my life. Throughout this period, I have been lucky enough to be working regularly with SCAN Wader Ringing Group; which cuts down to {Shropshire, Conwy and Anglesey}. During my 2 years of ringing training, I have taken part in just under 100 cannon-netting sessions, with several of these trips being rather memorable..

So when this year's season begun, I was keen to get out and catch some more.. A weekend's worth of cannon-netting in the months of September, October and November proved very successfull with several high catches and alot of data retrieved. This weekend was our last session of 2010 and what a great end to a year!

Saturday 4th December - Set 2 nets at Rhos Point/Colwyn Bay. Made a catch of circa. 50 Turnstone, 50 Redshank, 1 Knot and 1 Rock pipit.

Sunday 5th December - Set 2 nets in Bangor Harbour/Porth Penrhyn. Made a catch of circa. 300 Dunlin, 70 Oystercatcher, 15 Redshank, 1 Curlew.