Here Cooty Cooty Cooty

Its been a while since our last post but don't worry we haven't left the country (yet). The weather hasn't been conducive to ringing of late; a tad on the windy and/or wet side. With the weather improving we decided to head to Cosmeston to ring Coots on Saturday.

During our several Coot ringing outings, CJ has steadfastly declined the opportunity to ring one (when one has been available), preferring his first to be one he'd caught himself. On Saturday the first Coot both caught and ringed was by CJ, affording him much quiet pleasure. It was also Wayne's first Coot ringing experience.

As the weather is getting colder the Coots are becoming slightly bolder, but still all we could muster was five, caught in quick succession. Given the time of year there aren't as many Coot as we'd expect, and without safety in numbers they are still a little bit too wary for a big morning's catch. There is, on the whole, a bit of a dearth of waterfowl on the lakes compared to most years. Either that or the last two winters have spoilt us.

With the Coot on to us, we broke camp for another part of the lake to try for what some would call "proper birds". Sadly, despite a myriad traps, all we could achieve was a retrapped Dunnock. But we did get some Mallards - important G closing practise for the assembled trainees. 

Finishing on five new Coot, three new Mallard, and a retrap Tufted Duck, plus the Dunnock, and covered in 'fowl crap, we headed for breakfast.



Ti did an excellent job of releasing the morning's customers.

With the morning's session complete, and breakfast consumed, the group dispersed. On the drive home CJ and Facey decided that a bit more ringing was in order, so headed to the Stables - adding a retrapped Robin and 13 new Long-tailed Tits to the day's totals. This brings the Stables' total for the year to 211 new birds; a bit of a milestone as it's the first time we've breached the 200 mark here. It might not sound a lot but for a site where once the nest boxes are empty and the Swallows have departed, all that is caught is the odd Blackbird, Dunnock or Robin and we are quite pleased. You never know, we might make the dizzy, dizzy heights of 250 before the year is out. You have to have dreams people, you have to have dreams.

Dippers to Ducks

The November Dipper visit on Friday to the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales' Taf Fechan Reserve saw us maintain our "new bird streak" with no retrapped dippers being caught. True we didn't catch any dippers, or anything else for that matter. This was slightly disappointing as we had been joined by Dr Larus Ross-Smith of Flat Holm and BTO fame who was hoping to pop her dipper cherry.

Spending time at Taf Fechan is never a chore, regardless of catch success. If you live in or near Merthyr and have never been there then Shame On You. Its easy enough to find, so go visit.

Our efforts on Saturday were more fruitful. Firstly we were joined on site by Wayne Morris, local BTO rep, and of course a session is never dull when Ti the Tyke is about. The session began very slowly with only eight birds caught in the first two hours; although among these was a 3 female Bullfinch which is always nice to see, and Vaf got to colour ring another Cetti's Warbler. Given the slack nature of the morning we decided to pack up and try our luck with some Coot. However, the Gods of Ringing smiled, and as we took down the nets M1 and M2 filled with birds; Lesser Redpolls, Greenfinches and a few Blabis too. We ended on 29!

Number four

Our next stop was Cosmeston where we hoped to add some more Coot to the colour ringing project. A mild November has not helped our cause so we were keen to get some more. Arriving at Cosmeston we were somewhat perturbed to find a paucity of waterfowl. Even the swans seemed thin on the ground. The Coots took some interest in the corn on offer but not enough to bring them in close enough.

Its at this point a random lady and her two children started feeding bread to the assembled birds; the Coots went mad for it. Two minutes later, after quick explanation of who we were (imagine that...), she and her kiddies were showering our feet with bread and two more coot were secured for the project. This woman will never read this blog but we would like to say a massive THANK YOU for your help! A spin off of this ladies assistance was Wayne's first time holding a coot; an experience best described as shitty.

Its amazing how few people will throw bread at a strangers feet on request, so with few birds coming to corn we had to be content with a Mute Swan and a Tuftie. We could have done many more of the former but we like to keep them in reserve for the Very Quiet days.

The Man that Stares at Ducks

We ended the session with resighting a darvic ringed Black-headed Gull. It'll go through the proper channels of course but if you know any thing about E2CV (white with black lettering) then let us know!

Sunday was a day of rest.

“Put The Swan Down!” – Weekend ringing Shenanigans

Ringing activities over the bank holiday weekend were some what curtailed by the obnoxious weather – too windy or too wet.

We did manage a session at Cosmeston Lakes on Friday which resulted in 16 birds at the site 1 reed bed. With JOV having mentioned that we’ve caught swans in May we decided that a bit of early summer waterfowl catching was in order. So with the nets down, and not having swan rings with us, we headed to the “jetty” with plans to tag some ducks and coot.

Padwan Shewring, Jimmy Boy, and Dr O

It would have come as no surprise to the regulars of the lakes that there was bugger all about on the waterfowl front; a hand full of mallard, coot and even the usually abundant and ever present swans were thin on the ground. As we failed to attract anything quack-esque close enough to catch, we turned our attentions to reading swan rings. Even they weren’t playing ball and it became necessary to switch from the “read in the field” to the “read in the hand” technique.

No sooner had I picked up a swan than “Put The Swan Down!” was bellowed from one of the fluorescent vest clad park attendants. This was recited several times as I tried to explain that we monitoring the birds and had permission to do what we were doing – an explanation that seemed to be met with eventual approval as the attendant nodded and voiced an “OK”. That and the boys in blue didn’t turn up.

Friday evening saw Dr O and me accompanying John Hyde to gift broods of redstart, pied wagtail and swallows with uniquely numbered bracelets. While John busied himself with the latter, I decided to show Dr O a method of catching adult swallows coming out of stables that doesn’t require a 3:30am start. For twenty minutes we ran back and forth the farm yard trying to catch swallows as they exited their stables. We nearly succeeded having two swallows in the net, but sadly they didn’t stick! It usually works, honest.

Speaking of swallows; the first chicks at the stables have been ringed, with the first brood on Saturday and two more yesterday bringing the total to 14. More should follow suit this week. Since 2009 we’ve also looking at the bird’s diet by collecting poo. Last year was the year of constipation, with few broods giving in the name of science. So far this year they have been more than willing to do their bit.