Project Blackbird

Following Paulo's visit the other week and his anecdotal observations on the biometrics of Blackbirds, we have started some data collection to compare wintering Blackbirds in SW Lancs and the Mondego Valley of Portugal.

Measuring the beak.

Throughout the year, we will take measurements of the beak and tarsus of all new and retrap Blackbirds that we catch.

Measuring the tarsus.

If you are interested in helping collect some biometrics, get in touch!

A busy week!

A busy week all in all over here in South-West Lancs! With Paulo still around following the BTO Conference, Moxey treated him to a little bit of Ince and the first session of the winter at The Woodhams.

Here are the results:

The Woodhams - 07 Dec 2009

Paulo is clearly overjoyed at the prospect of so many Blue Tits, he is dancing!

Paulo was pleased to ring his first Regulus regulus, but unfortunately the only Treecreeper that was caught was a retrap. A relatively low key session from what Moxey reports, cut short by an incoming heavy rainshower.

Blackbird 1
Goldfinch 3
Treecreeper (1)
L.T.Tit 8 (1)
Dunnock 1
Coal Tit 3
Blue Tit 22 (3)
Great Tit 11 (2)
Goldcrest 1

Total: 50 (7)


Ince Blundell - 09 Dec 2009

As I was stuck in school teaching the finer points of the formation of polysaccharides through condensation reactions, it was typical that Moxey and Paulo caught a Sparrowhawk. Paulo found the general sizes of Blackbirds interesting however leading to ideas of a study (but more of that in another post).

Paulo and a first-year male Sparrowhawk

L.T.Tit 2 (2)
Coal Tit 3 (10)
Dunnock 1
Blue Tit 16 (30)
Great Tit 9 (31)
Chaffinch 2
Blackbird 1 (1)
Sparrowhawk 1

Total: 35 (74)


The Woodhams - 13 Dec 2009

FROSTY!

An early start for myself, Moxey and Tineke, following the first real frost of the winter. We were hoping for a decent catch but from the offset, the woods were relatively quiet with a high proportion of retraps. Siskins and Redwing were heard, with the odd Buzzard patroling the fields no doubt tempted by the huge flocks of Wood Pigeons all over the place. The highlights of the day were the first Nuthatch for the site and, after much promise, two Jays (much to the embuggerance of all that held them!).

First-year Nuthatch

Blue Tit 8 (19)
Great Tit 2 (20)
Coal Tit 1 (2)
L.T.Tit 1
Dunnock 1
Chaffinch 4 (1)
Goldfinch 4
Jay 2
Blackbird 3
Treecreeper (1)
Great-spotted Woodpecker (1)
Robin 3
Wren 1
Nuthatch 1

Total: 31 (44)

The two Jay and a Scouse Ringer

Interview with India!

I was recently contacted by Neville Lobo, a young photographer from Bangalore, India who had stumbled across my blog. We exchanged emails for a few days, discussing ringing and birds in general. Neville had never come across ringing before as the practice isn't widely publicised in India. It resulted in Neville asking me for an interview, this can be seen here: NEVILLE'S BLOG

BTO Conference 4-6 December

Following the arrival of Paulo Tenreiro, we all headed off to Swanwick in Derbyshire for a weekend of socialising, interesting talks and dire food! Here are a few of the highlights!

The APAA Poster

Myself and Paulo with the APAA Poster

Saturday Evenings Ringers Meeting

Scouse Ringer, PQT and Moxey

Despite the food, we all had a great time and it was great to catch up with other ringers. In reality though, there were not many of us there under the age of 40 and it is quite likely that conferences in ten or fifteen years time will have a very different complexion.

Onwards.

Moxey on a Monday

I had a very rare afternoon to spare some time to get out and about, a combination of wagging Uni so that I could teach my Yr8's about Adaptations and the pm session at Edge Hill being cancelled. Woop Woop!

Anyhow, I headed down to the Canal, no Coot coming to bread, so I headed down to Crosby Marina to freeze my Jacob's off! I didn't see the Grey Phalarope, but to be honest I wasn't looking too hard. I'm a half-arsed birder at the best of times. I was more interested in the Coot, loaf of bread in hand I headed down to the boating lake. A combination of Canada Geese, Black-headed Spitfires and some pesky dog walkers left my bonfire well and truly pissed on! Think that will be an early-morning job! However it was good to bump into Tony Duckels as he went to Phind the Phalarope!

Moxey (not at Ince), down with the kids!

Anyhow, Moxey was able to get out to Ince for an hour:

Blue Tit: 8 (7)
Great Tit: 3 (9)
Coal Tit: (1)
LT Tit: 3 (1)
Dunnock: 1
Chaffinch: 1
Blackbird: 2

Total: 18 (18)

That means in November we have ringed 504 birds between Crosby Hall and Ince. With The Woodhams now in opperation, we're hoping to build on this early promise!

Paulo Tenriero - Portugals Sexiest Anilhador (Bird Ringer) comes to Liverpool on Thursday! Watch this space!

The birds made up for the footy!

We headed out for a brief morning session at Crosby Hall this morning, ahead of the lunchtime clash between The Mighty Blues and the other team from Merseyside. As is Everton's look these days, the reds won the game despite being completely outplayed by the boys in blue! If only I hadn't skipped footy practise to go to the sewage farm with my dad.....

The weather forecast looked grim (a recurring theme this month - I can't remember a day without some form of precipitation!), but before dawn it looked clear. Picking Moxey up on the way we set the usual nets at the feeding station, tempted to add more, but deciding not to spread ourselves too thin incase the weather turned.

Catch rate was steady but almost exclusively titmice, an apparent absence of anything finch-like. A male Sparrowhawk booted it over my shoulder at one point, unfortunately no-where near a net. The rain kicked off about 11am so we packed up with the following totals:

Blue Tit 28 (6)
Great Tit 24 (11)
Coal Tit 2 (2)
Chaffinch 1
Greenfinch 1
Robin 2
Blackbird 1 (1)
Total: 59 (20)

Following packing up, we headed home to pick up more bird food and some feeders to set up the feeding station at The Woodhams. There has been a significant amount of habitat 'alteration' since we were last there and slightly less cover as a result. The northern station is untouched however and there were plenty of birds around. Now that a fair few of the Pheasants have been shot out, it should be safe to net there in the next few weeks. A few noisy Curlews flew off the stubble amongst the legions of Wood Pigs.

Todays total brings us to 486 birds ringed this month!

Blast from the past.....

I received an email from the Canadian Wildlife Service the other day with details of two recoveries of birds that I 'banded'. One being a White-throated Sparrow, found dead on 12th May 2007, only three days after being banded, the bird was found underneath a window 5km from the banding site.


More impressively however is the recovery of the Magnolia Warbler 2480-04825, banded on 2nd September 2007 and again, found dead on 12th September 2007 near Cleveland in Ohio. A distance of 210km over ten days.