Even More Mute Swans

Sean and and I have been doing more Mute Swan ringing over the last couple of days. We met up with Chris and Kay on Sunday morning who had fellow ringers, Jeremy and Naomi over visiting  from Devon.
We had orginally planned to catch some Rock Pipits at Castletown but it was too windy so we ended up in Ramsey Harbour where we caught 1 new Swan, 1x retrap Swan and read 10 colour rings and 1 metal ring on the remaining Swans.

Mute Swans at Ramsey Harbour

The retrap Swan was the Female from the pair that nested at Ronague in 2008 (see here for the story about the Male Swan from that pair - U3465, colour ring C21).
The metal ringed Swan was the one that Kane had ringed in Whitehaven, Cumbria in 2008 and Sean had caught in Ramsey harbour back in December.

Then today Sean and I met at up and initially went to Tromode Dam, a small lake at the end of an industrial estate on the oustkirts of Douglas, the Islands capital. We couldn't locate the pair of Mute Swans on the lake but Sean said he had seen a Swan wandering around on a patch of grass in the Industrial Estate itself a week or so ago so we went for a walk about. We were just about to give up when we saw 2 Swans sat at the entrance to one of the units, a car repair company. A quick chat with the manager and we had ringed the Male of the pair of Swans but left the Female as she appeared to be almost blind and had very worn wing feathers.

The pair of Mute Swans outside the car repair shop

The manager told us how they buy in special Swan food and put out a bowl of fresh water for them every day! He also said that he had been told that the Female was almost 40 years old, unfortunately she wasn't ringed so we weren't able to confirm it and we left the pair of Swans still sat outside the car repair shop!

We then headed to Ballasalla House, a fine place set in large grounds with a couple of private Lakes. The owners met us and took us to see 'Rambo' and 'Bella', the pair of very well looked after Mute Swans and their 3 cygnets!!
The female was originally ringed here by Dave and I in 2004 and still had its colour ring 'A78' on. The male was metal ringed but he didn't come out of the water to allow the number to be read. We caught 2 of the 3 cygnets but couldn't get near the third one.

Rambo & Bella from Ballasalla House

Finally, we went to Billown Mansion, one of the finest properties on the Island with several large lakes in its private grounds. We quickly checked access was OK with the estate staff and went down to the lakes where we found the resident pair with 4 cygnets. The Male of the pair had a metal ring which I was able to read - X2283 (originally ringed at the Mansion in 2006), and we caught 2 of the 4 cygents.

Thanks to Mr & Mrs Allsebrook of Ballasalla House and also to Mr Whittaker (and his estate staff) at Billown Mansion for granting us access to their properties to ring the Swans.
Thanks also to Sean - a superb Swan catcher!!

We have colour ringed 24 Mute Swans in the last couple of months and there are still a few left to ring and we will hopefully start seeing some movements as the breeding pairs move onto their territories to nest.

During our travels today we also caught a Canada Goose at Castletown and had great views of a Little Egret in Castletown inner harbour.

Little Egret in Castletown Harbour

Garden ringing and recent recoveries

I've managed to get a bit of garden ringing done last week with the totals being (retraps in brackets) :

Robin 1 (1)
Blackbird 2
Blue Tit 6 (2 + 1 control)
Great Tit 6
Chaffinch 1
Goldfinch 6
 
The Water Rail is being seen daily now in my garden stream but it has so far evaded the 'potter trap' (pity the local vermin haven't!!).
The retrap Robin is now in (at least) its 4th year as it was originally caught on 31st December 2008 as a second year bird.
The control Blue Tit  'L214419' was one ringed on the Calf of Man on the 10th October last year, a distance of 7km in 105 days.
 

A surprising number of Blue & Great Tits move between these 2 sites, not bad considering there's hardly any trees between them!

 
I've also received information on a couple of other recoveries.
 
Great Tit 'V430470' was ringed in my garden at Croit-e-Caley on 16th September 2009 as a first year Male and we heard recently from Miss Roni Gawne that it was found dead in Willaston with a guilty looking cat stood beside it on 6th January this year. A distance of 18km and 1 year 112 days after ringing.
 

Great Tit 'V430470' movement

 
Herring Gull 'GR21175' was ringed by Sean at Peel harbour roadbridge on 16th November 2010 as part of our colour ringing scheme on large Gulls. It was given colour ring 'T3XD'.
It was found freshly dead on the coastal footpath just North of Peel Bay on 18th January this year by David Wright. Cause of death unknown.
 
And finally, Adam photographed one of our Rock Pipits at Fenella Beach Car Park, Peel on the 21st January.

Rock Pipit from Manx RG colour ringing scheme - pic by Adam Denard

The above bird, 'left leg - Yellow/Orange' appears to be the dominant Rock Pipit (Male?) in Fenella Beach car park as on recent trips to try and catch there, this one chases all the other Rock Pipits away from the baited traps! An interesting behavioural observation from our project already!

Colour ringing Rock Pipits and Mute Swans

I met up with Sean this morning and our aim was to try some shoreline sites to see what we could get.
We set two nets on the foreshore at Pooil Vaaish and ended the morning having caught just 2 Rock Pipits and a Dunnock. It was good to catch some more Rock Pipits which we colour ringed as part of our ongoing project on them (click here to see info on our colour ringing projects).

Red over Bright Pink on left leg, Metal over Blue/White striped on right leg, one of the birds caught this morning at Pooil Vaaish

At one stage, a Chough 'bounced' in the net which caused a momentary bit of excitement, but it was out of the net again as quick as it went in and it settled down to feed with its mate about 50 yards along the beach.

After the tide had turned, exposing more depth of beach than we had covered, we packed up and headed to Castletown harbour to catch some more Mute Swans for our colour ring project on them.
We caught 5 new Mute Swans, 1 of which was a first year bird.

Castletown outer harbour

The first year Mute Swan with its new colour ring 'P21'

Twite

Sean sent this picture which he took today and I couldn't resist posting it on here. It shows a portion of the flock of 53 Twite at the Point of Ayre Landfill site perched on the fence.

The picture shows how well the colour rings can be seen on the birds showing five of the birds ringed this year (White ring over Blue/Orange striped ring) and one which we ringed in December (third bird from right - you can just see the lower ring which is Green/White striped).

The colour rings we are putting on the Twite are part of a British Isles wide scheme which has already reaped great insights into this 'species of conservation concern' by identifying the breeding and wintering sites of specific populations in the UK. Hopefully we will now be able to identify the breeding areas of Manx Twite as well as see if there is any dispersal to other wintering sites here on the Island or indeed to elsewhere in the British Isles.

More Mute Swans

I met Chris and Sean this morning up at the Point of Ayre. Chris and I surveyed the gravel pits and Sean had his woosh net set for the Twite again.
The survey was very quiet with the highlights being 2 redhead Goosander on the main pit and a Woodcock flushed from a small patch of willows as we walked by.
When we returned to Sean he had caught 1 new Twite and 1 retrap from yesterday.

We packed up and Sean and I then went to Ramsey harbour to try to catch some more Mute Swans.
We caught 2 new juveniles and sighted 6 colour ringed birds we had done over the last few months.

B21 - ringed on 21st December 2010 and one of the 6 ringed Swans seen today

On the way home I stopped off at the Eairy Dam in Foxdale, not much there apart from a nice drake Gadwall and a good number of Teal roosting on the back edge.

Twite finally find the seed

I got a phone call from Sean this afternoon and the first words he said were "Now don't fall out with me Kev, but...."

Now when a ringing mate says things like this to you, it only means one thing - they've caught something really good whilst out ringing without you! And so it was that he continued to tell me that he had caught 33 Twite this afternoon, 29 new birds, 3 retraps and a control from Machrihanish, Kintyre! The flock had finally found the seed that Sean had been putting down to feed them.
A decent reward for all the effort Sean has been putting in to get this project up and running. Well done mate!

The colour rings used on Twite caught on the Isle of Man Jan-Jun 2011 (Left leg - White ring above Blue/Orange striped ring)

The Machrihanish ringed bird (Green/White striped ring on both legs) All the photos courtesy of Sean.

You can click here to read Sean's own blog entry about his succesful afternoon! 

Manx Ringing Group Totals & Recovery/Retrap reports for 2010

I have now written up the groups annual ringing totals and the recovery/retrap report for 2010.

The ringing totals can be viewed by clicking here

The recovery/retrap report can be viewed by clicking here

The complete report will be written up in due course and will be published on here once completed.

Thanks to all the landowners, farmers and home owners who have allowed us to ring on their properties throughout the year.

Special thanks go to Ron & Hazel Crellin, Judith Burn, Manx Wildlife Trust, Island Aggregates, Manx National Heritage, Dept. of Infrastructure (Waste management), DEFA Forrestry division, Liz &Glenn Jensen, Nelson Kinley, John Clarke, Charlie Cormode and Mr & Mrs Solkin for their continued support in allowing access to their properties again this year.

Thanks too to Bob Taylor and his crew (John & Dave) of the charter boat 'Gemini' for numerous trips out to sea during the year.

Thanks also go to all the people who have contacted us over 2010 with reports/sightings of ringed/colour ringed birds, without whom we would not be able to learn so much about Manx birdlife.

Here's to a bumper 2011!