Barn Owl ringing..Friday 1st July 2011

Friday evening saw Lisa and myself at my local farm to ring the Barn Owls that have bred in the same barn, on and off for the last 30 years.
The box had 3 well grown young,(last years young were ringed on the 12th July and were about a week to 10 days old)and the ringing session was good PR with local residents, children and workers all seeing the ringing process and asking plenty of questions.
Returning home later a Hummingbird Hawk moth was in my conservatory.
AEH;LW

Woodpigeons....Saturday 25th June 2011

With the Wedding and Honeymoon over, I can at last turn my attention back to ringing.
With up to 8 Woodpigeon in the garden at any one time, I set the Moudry spring trap and soon caught 2 before they got wise.
Barn Owls at the local farm next on the agenda.
AEH

70 more Redshank...

Monday evening saw Tony and Kenny set one 60ft net on the wader field, both planning a 'quick session' - they soon realised that it was going to be a busy night.
the only waders around were Redshank, but in big numbers.
Over the next 4 hours they caught a fantastic total of 70 birds.
67 new, 2 retraps from last year and a British control.
Fantastic result guys.
AEH

Greenshank and a Norwegian Dunlin.....

We arrived at the wader field on The Wirral at 8pm to find lots of birds already milling about. We set 2x 18mt nets complete with decoys and started catching straight away.
Dunlin were about in good numbers and we where rewarded with a bird carrying a Norwegian ring (Stavanger). The biggest surprise was a Greenshank - the 13th for the group.
Other waders moving about but not caught included Black Tailed Godwit and Oystercatcher.

Totals for the evening -
DUNLIN -10 (1)
REDSHANK - 3
GREENSHANK -1

AEH,AO,KF,KMC

January wader catching...

Our first trip to the wader field this year saw a catch of 12 Redshank and 2 Dunlin, and on a full moon (it was cloudy though). A Barn Owl was hunting the field perimeter also.
Next weeks high tides should see us out again - weather permitting.
AEH, AO, KMN, KF.

Christmas Eve Gull catching....

Keiran and myself spent a few hours on The Wirral catching gulls with Keirans large Moudry trap (pull trigger). Within a couple of hours we caught 4 Black Headed Gull and this fine Common Gull.
The real disapointment was the 2nd Winter Med Gull which was sat in the trap - i thought Keiran had the pull cord and he me - too late - it was gone!
We plan to return before New Year and will keep you all posted.
AEH

Seasons Greetings....

Apologies for my lack of postings this year, due to a culmination of work & family commitments, and unfavourable weather conditions whenever I wanted to go out ringing!
Hopefully it should be back to normal in 2011.
Anyway Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to you all.
AEH