After a dissapointing week with some body stealing the crop of wildbird seed in the field at Jerbourg
myself and Phill went to a new ringing site yesterday after setting up 3 nets we had a good couple of hours trapping and ringing 10 Blackbirds   witch were mainly   of conternental race   5 Song thrush   5 Great tit   2 Goldcrest   1 Firecrest    1 Wren    3 Black cap   1 Dunnock   it turned out to be quiet a good morning fingers crossed  for the weather to stay good meny thanks to the land owner who allowed us to ring on their property here are a couple of photos from yesterday  Black cap  and Great tit

It was a late night with a early morning i was watching the disapointing start to England ashs tour
with not a lot of sleep I met Paul Veron and Phill at Pauls house at 7.15 am hopefully to catch some Gulls when I got there the trap had already been baited. With some Gulls flying around we sat down with a cup of tea and a chat whilst waiting to see weather the Gulls were going to play ball.  Id only just started my cup of tea and looked out at the trap the trap was already full of Gulls so the tea had to wait we only took one catch but it was well worth it with a total of 126 Herring Gulls    to witch  76 
were first year birds  25 adults the others were either re-traps  or second or third winter birds meny thanks to Paul for aranging  the ringing session

It was great to get out this weekend to do some ringing, With the winds N/E 2/3 we whent up to Jerbourg at 7.00 and put up three 60ft net mists, although there was not much on the ground there was some good visible migration with redwing ,fieldfare and a few skylarks going out to sea and 200+ starlings coming in off the sea it was good to be out after several weeks of wind and rain Colette my partner put out the flags and had a party that I was out from under her feet .We did manage to catch
12 redwing       2 wrens      1 great tit      7 dunnock      1 firecrest       1 black bird       and   1 linnet
fingers crossed the weather improves.

After a great week away at Paul Ropers we arrived on friday Paul picked us up from Stanstead airport
and drove up to Pauls house on the Saturday morning it was an early start to get to the tip for some
cannon netting of Gulls we met the rest of the team at the tip we took three small catches of Gulls
including Black headded Greater black back Herring gulls with a couple of Lesser black backs and
one yellow legged gull  it was a good morning ringing
on the Sunday evening Paul, Mich , Cris and myself went to set up some mist nets on farm land
after the nets were up we spent a couple hours trying for a Tawny owl with no success we closed the
nets up and went back to Pauls 6am the next morning we set off to the ringing site and opened up the nets just before dawn hoping to catch Yellowhamer there were plenty of Yellowhamer in the hedge row we seemed to catch every thing else but Yellowhamer we had one net set up at a in filled
quarry in between two fields set up for Sky larks or Meadow pippets near the end of the mornings ringing we were taking down the nets Paul went to take the net down and came back with 10 Yellowhamers  .   With a trip to Northfolk and to Rye Meads it turned out to be a great week away  with many thanks to Paul and hie partner Lorraine for putting up with us all thanks again some pictures of Yellowhamer and a Teal we rung at Rye Meads

Jerbourg has started off very slow this autum with only a hand full of birds being rung
there was good movement of Swallows a week or 2 ago but I could not find any roosts
in the maze I must have covered the whole of the island looking with the winds being in
the eastly quarter and the weather being good i think most of the Swallows and early migrants
went straight through hopefully I will have a good week with the North thames Gull group
this coming week my self and Mich leave Friday for a week of ringing / birding and not
to be unsocible a drink or two

With August over it is proving  to be a good year for ringing in the reed beds at the Claire mare
with Sedge and Reed warblers being well up in numbers from last year I am hoping to continue to
carry on ringing at the Claire mare for another 2 weeks as with the sea bird season being late I
think that the land birds can be late as well  August totals are as follows
Commonn sandpiper   1 ,     Sand martin  1 ,  Swallows 164  ,Wrens 6   ,  Meadow pippit  1
Hedge accentor  6  ,   Robin  2  ,   Whinchat  1  ,   Blackbirds   5  ,  Song thrush  2  ,   Whitethroat   2
Black cap   2  ,  Reed warbler  92  ,  Sedge warbler 186  ,  Aquatic warbler  3  ,  Chiffchaff  8  ,
Willow warbler  25 ,  Pied flycatcher  1   ,  Green finch  6  ,  Gold finch  6  ,
many thanks to the two trainees  Mich and Phill

When to claire mare at 6.00 and met Mich and opened the nets in the reed beds
With the reed wet and thick fog the open mets kept getting water droplets forming on them
keeping them visible to the birds. we only managed to catch a few birds and closed up
by 8am, The best bird of the day was a ringing tick for Mich a common sand piper

After Sundays pelagic it was good to go back down to the Claire mare  on bank holiday Monday
though the weather on Sunday was good the sea was very dirty and we did not manage to stay
in one area for long the best sighting was of a basking shark that came along side the  boat
other birds seen were 50+ Gannets     30 + Baleric shearwater  30+ Manx shearwaters
20+ Storm petrels 1 Great skua   3 Artic skuas  1 possible Pomarine skua 1 Black tern
2 Atric terns  2 Sandwich terns  10 Common terns
ringing at the Claire mare on Monday in 3 hours managed to trap and ring another 28 Sedge
2 reed warbler and a code 5 Black bird female this year so far Sedge are up to nearly 200
rung at the Claire mare in the last 4 weeks it seems like Sedge have recovered from last years
wet year even though Reed warbler are still down in numbers but are still up on last year

With the moon be full and clear night there his not mush at the claire mare reed beds this week with
only a hand full for birds rung mainly sedge / reed warblers and 3 willow warbler, The best being a
whinchat code 3, (Or this year juv)

thanks to michelle who is holding the bird

I went down to the Claire Mare this morning at 5:30am and opened up 8 nets with a light WNW wind there was not much down there, in 2 hours of ringing I managed to ring another 9 Sedge and 1 Willow warbler but with the winds this week going more to the North then North East to East and light one to three winds I am hoping for some good migration in the coming week on a sad note
cormorant colour ring BA that was rung on lihoumel on the 21st of the April 2012 has been reported
shot in Barros de luna Spain on the 12/11/12 proberly part of Spains fish protection program

With the sea-bird season over it has been another sucessful year with Herring Gulls showing
to have had a good breeding season along with Cormorants and Shags even though the LBGS
failed on Burhou with only a handfull of chicks being colour ringed it was great to get back down to
the reed beds at the Claire mare for the start of migration so far in the last 3 weeks it has been
showing to be a good year after last years poor breeding season
with 124 Sedge warblers  traped and rung so far and 3 aquatic warblers the first for 3 years
and Sedge almost double what I traped last year 2 of the Aquatic warblers being traped and rung
yesterday the 17th August by myself and Michelle Hooper another trainee who is about to get
her licence

With an early start I left home just after 5 am and met up with the Norththemes Gull group at Pauls we were at the tip by 6am and set up the cannon net with a load of refuge put in the firing area it was only a matter of time before we took our first fire we managed another two sets with the cannon net our total catch of the day was 290 Herring gulls 73 Lesser black backs   and 3 Greater black backs all in all it was a good first day of a week long cannon netting

 

Some of yesterdays photos of our second trip to Lihoumel to do Cormorant pullus with Paul and Catherine, we managed to ring another seven birds we are hoping to get out to the humps this coming week weather permitting, as the window is closing for Cormorant pullus fingers crossed for good weather the spring migration for ringing is nearly over to with poor weather conditions and clear nights I have not managed to catch many but now we will be busy with our sea birds starting on the 20th May with canon netting gulls at the tip with the Northames gull group.

With todays winds light I went to Jerbourg at about 6 am this morning and opened up 4 nets

there was not a lot happening up at Jerbourg with only 4 Willow warblers and 2 Whitethroat

trapped and rung I closed up at  about  9-30 at about 1-30 I met up with Paul and Catherine

At Lihou headland we went across to Lihou island  and then to Lihoumel to see how the

Cormorant colony there was doing there was about 15 active nests with mainly all small birds or eggs

we only managed to ring 6 pullis we will have to go back in about 10 days or so on the next spring tide

I went to the Claire mare this evening and opened up 2 nets there was not much doing there

by I had my first Sedge warbler of the year the only other birds were 2  Black birds

and a re-trap Reed warbler hoping to go to Alderney this coming week to do some ringing there

and to hopefully go to little Burhou to do the Cormorant colony there

pictures of  todays birds

With this mornings ringing out due to fog and very fine drizzle I met Paul at 10-30 at the land fill site
at Chout to try for Gulls with no success I went up Jerbourg at about 3 o clock this afternoon and opened up 4 nets with not a lot around I closed up at 5pm only catching 7 birds whitch were 5 chiffchaff and 2 willow warblers this evening Iwent to the Claire Mare with a lot of Swallows around
I opened up 2 nets and tryed for Swallows I managed to trap and ring 31 Swallows and 1 re-trap reed warbler  and 1 Sand martin .just before dusk there was about 1500 Swallows looking to roost in the reed bed at that time I closed the nets due to I had no head torch with me to be able to extract the Swallows from the nets hope to go back tomorrow evening to try again

 

With this years prolonged winter with cold easterly winds I have not been able to do much ringing
till now I have done some ringing at Jerbourg but with slow spring migration there is not much to report with only three days this month suitable for ringing it was nice to get out today to the humps
to see how the Comorants are doing I met up with Paul Catherine and Pauls daughter Sophie at the QE2 Marina where we met Pauls brother Chris and his wife we headded out for Godin where the main Comorant breeding colony was last year we were about two weeks later than last year Paul was very concerned that we might have missed the birds as last year when we went meny birds had already fledged on landing on Godin I clammered up the rocks while Paul and the others stayed on the lower rocks when I got up to the colony there was only nests with eggs in and no sign of any chicks so on returning to the boat we went up to Longpierre to have a look what was going on there though it is only a few hundred meters away from Godin I was surprised to see that there was already some chicks we managed to ring 10 birds with colour rings and metal rings with 17 nests on Longpierre and 15 on Godin it looks like the colony has split into two groups as last year there was over 25 nests on Godin it was slightly worrying to see that there was no Guillemots on either island
on the way back we only counted one Puffin but good numbers on Razorbill meny thanks to Pauls brother Chris for taking the time to take us up there
thanks again
On a lighter note there has been 3 sightings of colour ringed Comorants from last year one was on island BA was done as a pullus on Lihoumel on the 22/4/2012  and seen on the 13/9/2012 in Anez,Loire -Atlantique France by Pasal Bellion
BK was rung as a pullus on the 2/5/2012 then first seen on the 13/3/2013 on Wimbleball lake summerset england by Chris Gladman and again on the 19/4/2013 by the same person in the same place

On the 15th August 2011 Paul and I went to Burhou of Alderney with the BBC coast team,
To ring storm petrel one bird we caught was a re-trap,That was rung on Skokholm in
1974 4th August as a adult. It makes this bird at the time 37 years and 11 days old for a bird
that spends must of it life in some of the stormiest sea, and only return to Britain to breed

it is amazing,  This record eclipses the previous record by over five years

With the winds southeast to east 2-3 I met up with Phil my trainee at 8 oclock
and went to a new site behind the track at an old green house site we put up two
18 metre mist nets in two hours we caught 7 birds before the wind became 3-4
and with strong sun light I decided to close the nets the birds we caught 2 Great tit 2 Robins

1 Black bird 1Wren 1 Song thrush

With this year starting like 2012 finish it was good to do some gulls at Chouet Landfill at
the weekend with Paul, With 19 new Herring gulls rung and Four re-traps, One off witch was
rung in Jersey in June 1998. And two GBBG, It was good to get 2013 season under way.



         My Totals For 2012

  common scater        1           whitethrout           10

  marsh harrier           3          garden warbler        3
  sparrowhawk           2          black cap               72
  kestrel                      3          chiffchaff              46
  barn owl                   4         willow warbler      68
  swift                         1         gold crest               24
  sand martins             5         fire crest                12
  swallow                344         long tailed tit           3
 grey wagtail               1        chaffinch                10 
 wren                         22        green finch               6
 dunnock                   10        goldfinch                15
 robin                         33        linnet                      27
 black bird                 25        bullfinch                   1
 song thrush                 8
 red wing                     6
 sedge warbler           63
 reed   warbler            71