Well we thought the wader catches on Monday and Tuesday
were good but this definitely tops it!! After those two successful goes Dave
and Craig decided to have a go late Wednesday evening for a couple of hours until midnight and then again at first light. In just a few net rounds they had possibly the best single wader catch ever for the valley:
8 Ruff (largest single catch ever - all colour-ringed)
13 Snipe (all c/r)
1 Green Sandpiper
1 Greenshank (second for the week, 4th ever
for the LDV)
1 Spotted Redshank (first ever for the LDV - 152nd
species to be ringed in the LDV)
1 Dunlin
1 Ringed Plover (only 2nd ever for the LDV)
1 Common Sandpiper
1 Lapwing (c/r)
1 Shoveler (c/r)
Definitely worthwhile time spent considering the numbers of some waders ringed in the UK each year, especially Ruff (only 12 were ringed last year in the whole of the UK), and the 5 year average (2007-2011) is just 11. So to catch 8 in one evening is just fantastic, even more so with the potential sightings we hope to hear about from the colour rings.
The Spotted Redshank was caught during the night so unfortunately we've no photos to share. It's the first one to be caught in the Lower Derwent Valley despite them being present each year (average of 5 a year). Last year in the whole of the UK just the one Spotted Redshank was caught - hopefully there'll be a few more to come!
Ruff - one of the eight caught & c/r
Dunlin - first for the year
Snipe - one of the thirteen caught & c/r
Definitely worthwhile time spent considering the numbers of some waders ringed in the UK each year, especially Ruff (only 12 were ringed last year in the whole of the UK), and the 5 year average (2007-2011) is just 11. So to catch 8 in one evening is just fantastic, even more so with the potential sightings we hope to hear about from the colour rings.
The Spotted Redshank was caught during the night so unfortunately we've no photos to share. It's the first one to be caught in the Lower Derwent Valley despite them being present each year (average of 5 a year). Last year in the whole of the UK just the one Spotted Redshank was caught - hopefully there'll be a few more to come!
After such successful sessions we decided to have one more go in the early hours of Friday
morning before resting it over the weekend. With the nets open for just a couple of
hours from dawn we managed 4 Snipe, 1 Common Sandpiper, 3 Ringed Plover and 1
Lapwing.
Lapwing - juvenile
Common Sandpiper
Ringed Plover - juvenile
The guys arrived just in time to see the last two Snipe
caught, a new species for Sam and
Marie to see in the hand and ring, both were different ages too, which was interesting to see the comparison. The adult was much paler, particularly noticeable on the head, compared with the young bird which had a real chestnut orange/brown colour to its feathers. The young bird also had more buff fringes to the median coverts and lacked the black cross that is characteristic of adults.
Sam - ringing a Snipe
Adult & juvenile Snipe
On closing the nets we caught one more bird to add to the totals - an adult Ringed Plover, which was a hit with the guys and good to see the comparison with the young birds from earlier.
Sam - ringing a Ringed Plover
Ringed Plover - adult
Last thing on Friday we took the guys down to check the duck
trap and push the corale, it was raining lightly when we set
off, however on arrival at the trap the heavens opened and we all got drenched! We didn’t come away empty handed
though, a pulli Moorhen and Gadwall for our efforts.
Drenched!
Presumably the Ringed Plover Ad is a male with a collar and beak like that? Fantastic with the other waders!
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
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