Today

The wind is still blowing but not as strong 

so i set up the woosh net at the Point of Ayre

4 New Linnets ringed all showing good brood patches

 and a retrap Male from 15/08/2010

also one adult Oystercatcher and another Lbb Gull

 with colour ring placed on left leg

wind then got up and woosh net put away

 as i drove away 12 Linnets down feeding

I hate this wind and this May has been horrendous

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Colour ring added to LBB Gull

Oystercatcher

Gale force winds

Gale force winds again today, looking out at the view from my garden i noticed the Gannets feeding

close in shore so took my camera down for a look 

Good job for Pulli

May has been awful so far the wind has been gale force most days  so no chance of getting a mist net up thank god for ringing Pulli. Another 7 Chough ringed last night with broods of 5 and 2.  

This Farmer had placed a nest box for Chough which they had used before.This year Muscovy Ducks had moved in so the Chough built on top of the box. The Muscovy soon moved out with the noisy Chough on top of them

Kev with farmers help  gets to grips with Chough Pulli

Also 2 Black-headed Gulls ringed

these birds look magnificent in full summer plumage

Chough Ringing in the Isle of Man

WEDNESDAY

A great mate of mine flew in for 3 days of Chough ringing on Wednesday.

Kane works for WWT and helps us with the North West Swan Group and other wildfowl sightings

i have been lucky enough to ring with Kane at various sites over the last 4 years including Martin Mere

and a very productive Coot catch at Southport back in 2009 and Meadow Pipits/ Twite and Heron catches

I picked Kane up at the airport at 09:15 and started to show him this great island

within the first hour we had ringed two Oystercatcher and an Adult Chough

we then set off up to Ramsey for a quick cup of tea at my house and then

on to the Point of Ayre were we ringed

1 Common Gull

1 Lesser Black-backed Gull which we colour ringed as well

Another Oystercatcher

Then on to some nest sites where 3 Ringed Plover were ringed

The day ended up at home with a fish and chip tea and 8 Herring Gulls caught in the Garden and

 7 colour ringed one being a retrap from the first catch that evening

THURSDAY

We had arranged the visit with the Chough Colour Ringing Project and we met Kev the next Morning

14 Chough Pulli were ringed that afternoon at various sites, at one nest the chicks were too small to ring

at the others there was a mixture of Feathers short to nearly ready to fledge

FRIDAY

Today was an early start as Kane flew out at 11:30

Before he left another 4 nests were visited with another 15 Chough ringed

Me and Kev visited another 3 sites with another 12 young ringed

on our travels we noticed 3 Ringed Plover Chick on the beach so they were added to the days totals

On the Tuesday another Chough nest was ringed, if we had left it any longer we might have missed them

So over the last 4 days 46 Chough pulli have been colour ringed

Thanks to Kev for sorting out all the combinations and the sites and giving up his sleep as he work shifts

and to Kane great to see him again

A great young Man who's attitude and positivity is a credit to the ringing scheme

Last 2 Days

Last two Days 4 Oystercatcher and 2 Ringed Plover Ringed 

Also 2 more Herring Gulls and 2 Jackdaws ringed in my garden 

on my way back home yesterday saw T4XG in Ramsey, ringed in my garden last Saturday

Ringing Adults at the Nest

A great day spend out and about with Kev

 checking out a few nest we have found over the last few days.

Today 2 Adult Common Gulls Ringed 

Common Gull showing fantastic red eye ring and red gape

Common Gull

Also a Lesser Black-backed Gull ringed and a colour ring placed on left leg

LBB Gull

Herring Gull

Another 5 Herring Gulls colour ringed in my Garden during the last 5 days and 2 Jackdaws and a

 Handsome Hooded Crow

Hooded Crow

Also today 1 Ringed Plover and 1 Oystercatcher ringed at the nest 

All birds were processed and were seen to be back on the nest within 10 Minutes 

Ringed Plover

Oystercatcher

A couple of great evenings

A couple of great evenings spent with Kev out dazzling Waders
 40 new Waders ringed
Kev did say to me there might be a chance of a Whimbrel and what a chance

 9 Whimbrel ringed  {new bird for me}also a cracking summer plumage Knot

and a Little Tern {adult being a new bird again for me}

Also 20 Dunlin

6 Ringed Plover

2 Turnstone

and

1 Sanderling
All the Dazzling was carried out on the shore line to avoid any nesting birds
that's it now till the end of the nesting season.

Whimbrel

Sanderling

Knot

Little Tern

Turnstone

Ringed Plover

Kev Kay and Chris

A big thanks to Kev who is the master with the net

Today

A windy bright day today so decided to go and have a look for some nests and do a bit of spring trapping

Hooded Crow in big spring trap

2 more Wheatears ringed

Oystercatcher Nests found

Ringed Plovers starting to lay 

News from back in Yorkshire Andy has now 10 Breeding pairs of Barn Owls and 2 boxes still to check

a great reward for all the time spent putting up boxes and monitoring them 

Well done mate

A grand day out

I met Chris at Laxey at 07:15 and off we set to pick up Kev down in Colby.
 Today we had planned to check a good number of Chough nests to see how far on they were. 

11 Hours later and a full English and a few bars of chocolate and bottles of water to sustain
us along the way, 15 nest site check all over the island.

A great day with lots of banter and piss taking and some good views of nests
 at different stages from eggs to hatching to feathers short.

And an adult Female ringed as well 

Fantastic Birds

We will be colour ringing the young in the next 2/3 week

Thursday Friday

Out at Smeale on Thursday in amongst the willows and scrub 2 nets put up and only 5 birds ringed

but a new species for the year was 1 Whitethroat, plenty of Whitethroat about singing and darting over the gorse.

Also 3 WillowWarbler and a Long Tailed Tit ringed

Whitethroat

On Friday afternoon met up with Kev and checked on the nest boxes at the Wildlife park 

The 50 or so boxes are home mainly to House Sparrow with a few Blue Tits and Gt Tits mixed in.

Only one brood of House Sparrow chicks were big enough to ring the majority were still on eggs .

House Sparrow chick