Cannon Netting on Seaton Marshes - 24/03/12

The last cannon net catch of the season. Although many of the wintering wildfowl have left the Axe Valley for their breeding grounds, good numbers of Shelduck remain - a species the Axe Estuary Ringing Group are studying. At least 80 were feeding on the lagoon on Seaton Marshes on the morning of the catch.

Weather: always a murky haze, but above that blue skies and unbroken sunshine. No wind.

Only one species today;

23 Shelduck (19 retraps)

Although a high number of retraps, the new birds prove Shelduck are still arriving on the Axe Estuary (to breed?). Hopefully over time the colour-ringing program will show more about movements of Shelduck.

The Team - Stafford Marsh March '12 (c) Mike Tyler

Cannon Netting on Seaton Marshes - 26/2/12

A smaller than usual team for this cannon net catch, as can be seen from the group photo.

The team - Stafford Marsh Feb '12 (c) Mike Tyler

Weather: foggy start with a cool breeze, but soon cleared to give a warm and sunny, very spring-like day.

After the cannon net catch, once all 61 birds had been safely processed and released, the Abberton Traps on Colyford Common were set and provided the team with another 4 birds.

In total 65 birds of 4 species were processed;

58 Shelduck (43 retraps)
2 Mallard
2 Moorhen (retraps)
3 Black-tailed Godwit

So that's three more colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwits from the Axe Estuary, notice in all three photos the Axe Estuary yellow red yellow colour combination on the bird's right leg. For more details click HERE.

LOW (lime orange white) - Stafford Marsh Feb '12 (c) Adrian Bayley

YOW (yellow orange white) - Stafford Marsh Feb '12 (c) Adrian Bayley

GOW (green orange white) - Stafford Marsh Feb '12 (c) Adrian Bayley

This wasn't the only colour-ringing done in this session. The 15 un-ringed Shelducks needed colour-ringing too.

Shelduck colour-rings - Stafford Marsh Feb '12 (c) Adrian Bayley

With a smaller team, it meant for a change the A ringers had the chance to roll their sleeves up and do some ringing.

Terry ringing a young Shelduck - Stafford Marsh Feb '12 (c) Adrian Bayley

Pete measuring a Shelduck's leg - Stafford Marsh Feb '12 (c) Adrian Bayley

Job Done - Stafford Marsh Feb '12 (c) Adrian Bayley

Cannon Netting on Seaton Marshes - 29/1/12

Thanks to a Peregrine looking for breakfast over Seaton Marshes early on Sunday, and an imminent arrival of a mass of corvids, the team had to make do with a smaller catch than the norm.

Weather: Damp, 100% cloud cover, cold wind.

As well as the cannon net catch, a single Mallard was caught in one of the Abberton traps on Colyford Common afterwards. In all, 33 birds of 3 species were processed;

29 Shelduck (19 retraps)
3 Mallard
1 Wigeon

The team - Stafford Marsh Jan '12 (c) Mike Tyler

Cannon Netting on Seaton Marshes - 08/1/12

The first ringing session of the year, a cannon net catch on Seaton Marshes. The whole session was almost called off though due to a couple of wildfowlers trespassing and shooting on the reserve a couple of evenings prior to the catch day. If you do or have witnessed any illegal wildfowling on the valleys nature reserves, please report it to the Police and the countryside department of the EDDC.

Weather: Dry, 60% cloud cover, light west wind, excellent visibility.

There was a smaller team than last time, maybe because the catch was expected to be a rather small one.

The extraction team waiting for the go in half life - Seaton Marshes Jan '12 (c) Adrian Bayley

It was indeed a smaller catch than the last cannon netting session, probably due to the aforementioned disturbance. Although probably also something to do with the continuing mild weather. 33 birds of 5 species were processed;

27 Shelduck (15 retraps)
1 Moorhen
2 Crow
2 Rook
1 Jackdaw

Terry measuring a Shelduck - Stafford Marsh Jan '12 (c) Adrian Bayley

A quick photo of the newly fitted colour-ring - Stafford Marsh Jan '12 (c) Adrian Bayley

Corvids are often seen feeding in the catch area, but if there are too many the cannon cannot be fired due to licence restrictions. Luckily only five were in the catch area so the cannon could indeed be fired.

Crow and Rook - Stafford Marsh Jan '12 (c) Adrian Bayley

So, although it was wasn't one of the most productice cannon netting sessions, the team were more than happy with the first 17 birds ringed of 2012 for the Axe Esuary Ringing Group.

The team - Stafford Marsh Jan '12 (c) Mike Tyler

Cannon Netting on Seaton Marshes - 11/12/11

Today saw the first cannon netting session of the winter. The first one of the season was due to take place a few weeks before, but due to a lack of duck and water (!) it was called off.

As ever the net was set the previous afternoon by a small team lead by the group leader.

Cannon net set - Seaton Marshes Dec'11 (c) Adrian Bayley

Weather: it remained dry, despite showers before and after the ringing session, 100% cloud cover, light to moderate south west wind, visibility good.

A remarkable 28 people turned up for this ringing session, as usual this total included a good mix of experienced A ringers, C ringers, trainees and helpers.

The team (minus two) - Stafford Marsh Dec'11 (c) Mike Tyler

After a briefing at 7am, the firing team (including qualified cannon netter and group leader Mike Tyler) made their way to the hide, whilst everyone else remained on standby for extraction out of sight.

From the hide, in the early morning gloom it was obvious there were a good number of wildfowl on the lagoon - although this did include about 60 Canada Geese! A small number of Canada Geese were already in the catching area, but with the rest of the flock making a bee line to join them, when all was safe to do so, the net was fired. The time was 07:30.

By 07:40 all birds had been safely extracted from the net thanks to the efforts of the qualified extractors, and experienced helpers.

Canada Geese - Seaton Marshes Dec '11 (c) Adrian Bayley

Considering the rather mild weather, and limited number of duck in the valley, the catch was respectable, with 63 birds of 5 species processed;

3 Mute Swan (2 retraps)
13 Canada Goose (1 retrap)
11 Shelduck (5 retraps)
22 Wigeon (2 retraps)
14 Mallard (1 retrap)

The Mute Swans were quickly processed and realeased on site. The decision was then taken to transport the rest of the birds to the new classroom on Stafford Marsh, as there was a very real threat of rain.

It takes two to ring a Mute Swan! - Seaton Marshes Dec '11 (c) Adrian Bayley

Once everything and everyone had arrived safely at Stafford Marsh, the group was split in to three teams.

Team Shelduck - Stafford Marsh Dec '11 (c) Adrian Bayley

Out of the six unringed Shelduck, five were this year's young (aged 3) - but I wonder if they were born locally or have migrated in from elsewhere?

'Captain Cango' (aka Terry) keeps an eye on Team Canada Goose - Stafford Marsh Dec '11 (c) Adrian Bayley

Team 'everything else' had the Mallards and Wigeon.

Wigeon 4M left and 3M right; wing and tail shots - Stafford Marsh Dec '11 (c) Adrian Bayley

The two retrap Wigeon were both ringed at Seaton Marshes. One of them was a 6F ringed by Luke Phillips on 8th January this year, but the other was ringed as a 4F by Peter Robinson on 29th November 2008. This just shows that wintering birds are often site faithful.

After all the birds had been safely processed and released, the team returned to Seaton Marshes to pack away the net.

Packing up - Seaton Marshes Dec '11 (c) Adrian Bayley