Thursday 27 January 2011

Two Mosses and a Handful of Recoveries

Over the past two visits to my feeding station on Rawcliffe Moss the number of Tree Sparrows have been fairly constant at 185 with 7 Yellowhammers and 20 Chaffinch. Hopefully we'll be able to get out ringing there this weekend.

That was the first moss and the second moss was Altcar Moss near Formby yesterday. I was doing a survey of an arable farm there in preparation for a Higher Level Stewardship application that I am completing. It was fairly cold and breezy as I walked round and also fairly quiet bird wise. I had a nice flock of 22 Curlews feeding on some flooded potato stubbles and in the 'crystal' light they looked fantastic. A number of Pink-footed Geese were moving around all morning and in total I had 2,178 in varying flock sizes.

I was hoping for a few finch flocks but the best I could do were 7 Reed Buntings and a handful of Skylarks (yes I know they're not finches!). I had 5 Buzzards in one area with 3 together thermalling above some woodland. Walking along a track I had Stoat run close in front of me and later on in the morning I had another one.

Below are some pictures of the landscape of the moss at Great Altcar.



 We had a few recoveries through from the BTO yesterday and I have detailed the more interesting ones below.

We had a Blackbird that Phil and Will ringed at Lee Farm near Myerscough College on 3rd February 2010 and this was controlled at Bauersdorf, Lammershagen, Germany on 31st October 2010 having moved 866 km to the east. It is interesting to speculate that when controlled on 31st October whether it was heading west back to the UK or whether it was going to winter in Germany.

 Blackbird CF24597

The second reovery was a Coot colour ringed by Craig at Stanley Park, Blackpool on 13th September 2010 that was reported at Glasson Dock, Lancashire on 28th November 2010. This is a movement of 24 km NNE. Craig has been colour ringing Coots in Blackpool as part of a larger colour ringing scheme organised by Kane Brides and they have been getting some fantastic results. In fact I think they are going to be re-writing what is known about the movement of Coots.

 Coot GN08876

The third and final recovery is of a Chaffinch that Ian and I controlled at Rossall School on 4th October 2010 that had been ringed as a juvenile female in Gosforth, Cumbria on 13th August 2010. This was a movement of 63 km to the SSE. It illustrates nicely the distance of post-natal dispersal of some Chaffinches.

 Chaffinch L145712

1 comment:

Kane Brides said...

Fantastic Blackbird recovery Seumus!!

K