Cannon Netting Session on 26th February

 The second of this winter's cannon netting sessions on the Axe saw 12 ringers gathered in the early morning of the 26th, waiting for a loud bang, followed by a mad dash across the muddy marsh to extract the catch.

Totals for this session were 28 Shelduck, 2 Canada Geese and about 10 Pheasants.

The Pheasants were all released: they can't resist the wheat used to bait the ducks.

Newly fitted ring on a Canada Goose.  These are among the largest rings we use.

Canada Goose with its new ring

Interesting moult pattern on this Canada Goose's wing.  Both the Canadas were unusually placid.  Usually they are very bitey!

Biometrics are an important part of any ringing session.

Here a Canada Goose gets it lower leg bone (tarsus) measured, while a male Shelduck has its head and bill measurement taken

In addition to the normal metal rings, we also fit colour rings to various species, including Shelduck.  This allows the rings to be read by birdwatchers, who then send in the dates and locations of sightings.

We've been ringing Shelduck on the Axe Estuary for so long that some of their colour rings are starting to wear out, making the letters harder to read.  We always replace worn out rings with new ones.

One of the birds caught on Saturday had been ringed in March 2011.  Since then it was sighted five times over the next three years, but was not seen or caught for the next eight years until we caught it on Saturday.  Its colour ring and its metal ring were so badly worn that we had to replace them both.

By coincidence the Seaton Tram Company had one of its Birdwatching Specials on Saturday morning.  As the tram passed close to the netting site, I was able to show them some of the birds we had caught and to explain the reasons and science behind our work.  Bet they weren't expecting to get that close to a Shelduck!

 

 

Session Round-up

Although there have been no advertised public ringing sessions at the Wetlands for a quite a while due to Covid, there have been a few interesting sessions.

Early last year the Abberton traps (wood & mesh cages used to trap ducks) were removed from the wetland in front of the Discovery Hut hide for renovation. They were replaced with much back-breaking effort on 9/12/21.

One of the two Abberton traps being assembled before being moved into place. 

For a few days before 14/12/21, the traps were baited with grain to encourage ducks into the trap. The roof & door were left open during this period to allow any ducks to escape, and then closed the day before the planned catch. Six members of the Group attended the session, which proved to be pretty quiet. We finished on 25 birds, not a lot for the length of nets used around the willows (which were disturbed by the volunteers clearing and burning), the brook, the feeders and the northern edge of the reeds. However, the Abberton traps were a success with ringing ticks for some members. 

Ringing areas in the vicinity of the Discovery Hut

The new & re-trapped birds processed are shown below:

	Ringed	Re-trapped
Blackbird	3	2
Blue Tit		2
Chiffchaff	1
Dunnock	2	1
Great Spotted Woodpecker	1
Mallard	3	1
Moorhen	3
Robin	3	2
Teal	1
Totals	17	8

The Teal was an adult female as indicated by the bold white edge on the tertial feather (arrowed)

On 3/2/22 five members of the Group lugged the ringing kit to Colyford Common at the far north of the Wetlands, where a base was set up on the viewing platform. 

The conditions for ringing were good, with none of the high winds forecast over the preceding few days. The early morning high tide made access to the two 18m nets in the reed bed a little tricky for a bit! Nets were put up in the reeds, the tram gate and the field gate. We put an L in the corner of the crop field, one further up in the bramble patch and another in the middle under the wires.  

Ringing areas & net rides at Colyford Common

33 birds were processed of 12 species as shown below:

	Ringed	Re-trapped
Blue Tit	6	2
Wren	3	2
Greenfinch	2	2
Blackbird	1	2
Goldfinch	3
Song Thrush	1	1
Dunnock	1	1
Long-tailed Tit	1
Cetti’s Warbler	1
Reed Bunting	1
Chiffchaf	2
Robin		1
Totals	22	11

One of the re-trapped Blue Tits was interesting, having been ringed on 17/7/17 as a juvenile at the feeders, and encountered again that September in the reed bed where it was caught this time. It had not been seen during the almost 4 1/2 year intervening period. The average age for a Blue Tit is about 3 years, so it's doing pretty well, although it has a way to go to beat the maximum recorded age of 10 years, 3 months and 10 days. 

Greenfinch: Identified as a male by the amount of yellow spreading across the tail & primary flight feathers, and as an adult by the brightness of the yellow on the alula, the broad grey tips on the primary coverts, and the tail feathers which were black, round tipped & in good condition. 

And lastly, a session was held on 17/2/22. It was one of those days on the Axe. Quiet! The highlight from the nets by the feeders was a Great Spotted Woodpecker. A net was set over the brook for Kingfisher, which it delivered. Branches placed in the water in front of the net encourage them to fly into rather than under it. 

The two Abberton traps in front of the Discovery Hut hide were set and having baited them in the days before, we expected the usual Mallard, Teal and Moorhen but the only bird seen inside, a Moorhen, found a way out. The Mallard seemed to prefer the pond in front of the Sand Martin wall where they are spoiled rotten by visitors to Seaton Wetlands.

A quiet session with only 11 birds,  but an excellent opportunity for us to demonstrate bird ringing to a student who was with us for the morning. We were also joined briefly by an unusually confiding Water Rail. 

The species ringed are shown below:

	Ringed	Re-trapped
Blackbird	2
Blue Tit	2	1
Chaffinch	1
Goldcrest	1
Great Spotted Woodpecker	1
Kingfisher		1
Long-tailed Tit		2
	7	4

Kingfisher: A female, identified by the amount of red on the lower mandible. First ringed at the Wetlands on 27/08/2021 as juvenile. Photo by Peter Bennett. 

With the nets down, two of the Group were pleased to join another member who was enjoying a busier morning in a cover crop inland where the catch included ten Brambling

Peter Bennett

An Icelandic Godwit: Updated

On 7th February I spent the day birding around the Exe, which included a visit to Bowling Green Marsh. Scanning the Black-tailed Godwits roosting on the estuary mud from the viewing platform, I was excited to see one showing the Axe Estuary Ringing Group colours of 'yellow, red, yellow' on its only visible leg. The bird stubbornly refused to put down its other leg which would have revealed a unique colour combination, thus allowing me to identify when the bird was ringed & any other sightings. 

However, I then spotted another bird standing nearby which was also colour-ringed, although not with the Axe colours. This one had a light green ring over a dark green one on its left leg, and an orange ring over a paler orange ring with an inscribed black Z on the right leg. 

On 12th February whilst in the Tower Hide at Black Hole Marsh  I was surprised to see a light green ring over a dark green ring on the leg of a roosting Black-tailed Godwit. After quite a wait, it finally put down its other leg, and revealed that it was the same bird, with its 2 orange rings & black Z.

I then set about trying to track down the origin of the rings. The usual place to find a colour-ring project is at cr-birding.org, but not this time. I finally managed to identify the project via the International Wader Study Group website's Colour Mark Register which indicated that the bird had been ringed in Iceland. I emailed the the details of my sightings, and the next day received a reply confirming that the bird, (a female, metal ring number 635383), was ringed in Auðsholt in Southern Iceland on 10.6.2017. The bird has been sighted on 69 occasions since that date. 

The locations where the bird was ringed in Iceland, and the subsequent sightings are shown on the map below:

In order to visualise the movement of the Godwit over time, I've attached a chart to show where the sightings have occurred over the 6 years. This provides a rough estimate of the bird's actual location as it's obviously based only on the available sightings. There are therefore large gaps, and there may have been 'comings-and-goings' between the sightings at one location, whereas it's shown present between the start & end dates. A colour block for a week means that the bird was present for at least one day within that week and not necessarily for the whole week, and the number within the colour block indicates the number of sightings within the period shown. 

Key
	Iceland	Auðsholt, S Iceland
	Netherlands	Coudorpe, Scheldt Estuary
	England	Seaforth Nature Reserve, Merseyside
		Exe Estuary, Devon (various locations)
		Thames Estuary (Thurrock Thameside NP)
		Axe Estuary, Devon
	France	Parc Ornithologique du Marquenterre, Somme Bay
R	Ringed
3	Number of sightings within period.

Month	January				February				March				April				May				June				July				August				Sept				October				November				December
Week	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4
2017																						R					1		1															2
2018	3														1												4											2					2
2019			1									5							1									12														5
2020	4																	2													5										5
2021	1																			2											4							4
2022	1	1

If you see any colour-ringed birds on the Axe Estuary, please email your sightings to Ian Stanbridge, and you'll be able to find the bird's history.  More information on colour-ringing projects on the Axe Estuary can be found here,  whilst information on the importance of colour-ringing projects for the monitoring of bird populations & their movements can be found here. 

Update:

The Black-tailed Godwit has been seen again on the Axe, this time on 18th Feb at 1600hrs near Borrow Pit on Seaton Marsh. Thanks to Susie Joy who spotted the bird & took the photo. 

Black-tailed Godwit 635383 sporting its Icelandic colour-rings (Photo by Susie Joy)