Bump into some old friends today

6 Twite colour ringed at the Point of Ayre today

Colour code for the Isle of Man is

Left Leg White {Isle of Man} above Green White Split ring {Year 2010}

Right Leg BTO Metal

Woosh Net working well

Last 2 Afternoons and this morning

18 Blackbirds 

13 Starlings

3 Song Thrush

2 Pied Wagtails

2 Chaffinch

1 Greenfinch

More apples required

TODAY

The day started with 7 Starlings and 2 Blackbirds  in the woosh net.

 I then went down to Ramsey Harbour to meet Kev.

 High Tide was 11ish today so we decided to try for a few more Mute Swans.

6 Swans Caught  5 new and 1 retrap all had new colour rings fitted

Kev tell me that one swan which already had a BTO ring on the right leg 

U3465 is now on its 3^rd colour ring!

 It has previously been known as A33 & then A51! It’s parents were A16 (dad) & A19 (mum)

It was ringed on 1^st Sept 1993 in Ramsey harbour as a 3 and has been seen since as follows:

29 May 1994 Newtonabbey, Co Antirm, Northern Ireland

13 Oct 1994 Cliftonville, Belfast

30 Oct 1994 Ramsey, IOM

22 Jul 1995 Ramsey

06 Jan 1996 Ramsey

16 Aug 1996 Ramsey – colour ring A51 added

06 Jun 2008 – caught by Kev near his Mums in Ronague walking in road with a young brood of cygnets, sexed as Male.

25 Oct 2010 Ramsey – caught by me

21 Dec 2010 Ramsey – caught and colour ringed by us today and given colour ring C21

17 years 111 days after first ringing as a fully fledged 3

That why we ring birds 

Fantastic

We tried for some Black Headed Gulls down near the Grand Island Hotel

but no luck.

Took Kev back to his car and we ringed a Male Mallard

after saying goodbye to Kev 

i went back to the Grand Island and managed to get 

2 more Herring Gulls

Large and small

I Set off today to try and get some more BH Gulls 

only 1 ringed today

then tried for Canada Geese in the harbour

1 ringed

I then set up the small mesh woosh net in my garden and chucked a few apples out

6 Blackbirds 

5 Starlings

and a Pied Wagtail

in the woosh net  this afternoon

plus

 5 new Siskin 

3 Goldfinch

1 Robin

1 Chaffinch

1 Coal Tit
1 retrap Wren

in the Mist Nets

So from ther size of a Canada Goose right down to Wren size today

Nice day

Snow hits Ramsey

Open the curtains today to 2 inch of snow in the garden and the roads a nightmare. Niki had a hair appointment at 12:30 so spent the morning filling up the feeders and breaking the ice on the bird bath.

By 12 o'clock i got car out and crawled up the hill in 4 wheel drive low box.

After dropping Niki off i went for a drive around the harbour and decided to buy some more seed

then i though I've got the big Moudry Gull trap in the back get some bread and give it a go.

1 Hour Later 3 Black-headed Gulls ringed

New Species for the group this year

and a Herring Gull Colour ringed

good old snow

Check out Kanes blog they caught 41 BHG by hand yesterday

Herring Gull Colour Ringed

Moudry trap in back ground

400TH Linnet Ringed

Up at the Point of Ayre this morning in sunshine and calm weather, while the south of the island was in chaos from snow.

 45 more Linnets caught today bringing the total for the year up to 400 not bad for a small patch of nyger seed in the middle of no where.

No retraps today and only 7 since i started 

Looking through the data amazingly sexes are quite evenly divided 

192 Males

208 Females

yesterday had a new visitor to my garden that had me confused for a while .

i noticed a bunting feeding with chaffinch's on the lawn at about 3pm the light was fading and i was trying to get a shot of it  through the window. It looked reed Bunting size and smaller than Chaffinch 

God i thought of all the possibilities trying to make it into a Little Bunting.  Rustic so on then after  zooming in on photos 

Yellow Hammer, funny growing up in Norfolk i used to see these birds all the time and never gave them a second look see one today and i am looking in books to id them .

Nice garden tick anyway

Check out Kevs blog for some more controls just in

New visitor to garden

A bit of garden ringing this aft 

25 birds caught

22 new birds  3 retraps

10 Goldfinch  all new

6 Siskin  4 new 2 retraps

2 Blue Tits 1 retrap

2 Robins new

1Coal Tit new

1 Greenfinch new

1Dunnock new

1 Chaffinch new

and 

1 Brambling yahoo

Last week

My good mate Andy Jowett  paid a visit to the island on Monday to Friday all to do with his work. Assessing bird control for airports.

I met up with him on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thurday and spent the day checking the13 km area around Ronaldsway airport.

Great to get out with him again and do some good birding.

Chough

Greenshank

Knot

Snipe

Peregrine

Hen Harrier

all images ©2010 grayimages

See More at www.grayimages.co.uk

Last few days 4 more Rock Pipits Colour Ringed
27 Linnets ringed
2 Starlings
2 Blackbirds
3 Mallards

Slow week

I was out last Saturday with the only option of woosh netting some birds. So off i set and ringed another 17 Linnets bringing the total to just under 300. While there waiting for the birds to come in a female Merlin went racing past. Just 1 Male Mallard ringed on Monday and that's been it no snow up here in the north of the Isle of Man but not many birds either plus wind has been strong and very cold.

Also when i woke up yesterday and pulled back the curtains 

a Snipe was walking round the garden with the starlings

nice garden tick