Saturday's downpours turned much of Ainsdale beach into a quagmire this afternoon, and I spent most of my time hauling cars out of the gloop...but later when the sun came out in the evening I managed to catch up with the tern roost for a half hour or so, when they weren't being spooked by joggers (why can't you run around the flocks and not through them? Is it so hard?).
113 Sandwich Terns, including a few adults still bringing fish in from offshore, although they seemed to have trouble finding their offspring.
Plenty of birds with BTO rings too.
16 Common Terns, including three youngsters, with the Sarnies, spending most their time preening.
Lovely as the terns were, more interesting were two colour ringed Sanderlings - after failing to pin a bird down earlier in the summer, I was able to get crap digishots of the individuals tonite and get the sequences.
Could they have been done far away to the north? Or just up the road in some cannon-netting programme?
For those interested, the sequences are as follows:
Bird A (let's call him Steve):
Right leg: Metal ring above yellow above red.
Left leg: Green flag above green above yellow.
Bird B (known as Jim):
Right leg: White over red.
Left leg: Green flag over yellow.
Hmm, I must try and find out where they've come from....safe journey Steve and Jim.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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Thanks for them John. I have seen Steve around for a couple of weeks and its good to see the sequence. We should find out his and Jim's life history soon.
Keep up the good work.
Those Sanderlings were ringed by a geezer (plus team) from Uni Of Groningen according to some gen on "BirdForum".
You'll have to contact him for full details as apparently they've ringed them world-wide.
Bleedin' awful August so far. So much for my comments re Andy Bunting and "quiet" Augusts.
Up to 4 Green Sands at Banks. Lots of Peewits (of course) BHGs appear to have had another bad breeding season but plenty of juv LBBs inc some with three per parents.
Nuthatch on my feeders this week here in Churchtown. First since early May and unlike last year no young being fed by parents.
Ron
Hello John
Good stuff! I've passed these Sanderling on to Richard and he will sort out the ringing details for you asap.
Regards
Pete Marsh
(Lancs ringing recoveries coordinator for county bird report........but no Mute Swan enquiries please - send to NW Swan group!!)
The project for these has a website at:
http://www.waderstudygroup.org/res/project/sanderling.php
Bird 'Jim' actually has a green ring above the green flag which is really quite hard to pick up.
I have the details of these birds. One ringed in Iceland and one in Greenland. John - if you could email me I'll forward them on to you (I can't find your address).
Hello there,
Did you find the origin of your colour ringed Sanderlings? If not mail me back.
Henk van Huffelen (Waderstudygroup)