Sunday, 16th December 2012

A team was assembled this morning from Fylde Ringing Group to catch and ring Turnstones at the obs. The birds will be fitted with a metal BTO ring above the knee (tibia) on the right leg, a green colour ring below the knee (tarsus) on the right leg and above the knee on the left leg a black flag inscribed with two white letters to identify the birds as individuals. 

The aim of the project is to generate some information on wintering sites and distribution of  wintering Turnstone in the northwest of England or further afield, attempt to find out what the turnover of the birds wintering at the observatory is and where are they coming from to roost/forage at the site, measure winter site fidelity and implications of disturbance if they show high winter site fidelity, generate re-sightings to look at migration routes, try and ascertain whether there are any relationships between wintering areas and breeding areas and possibly measure phenology if we can catch them over a number of years. 

A successful catch was made and 31 Turnstones were fitted with leg flags including a retrapped bird originally ringed at the obs in January 2012.

Offshore 

1 Shelduck east, 35 Common Scoters, 43 Eiders, 14 Red-breasted Mergansers, 10 Red-throated Divers west, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Guillemot west and 4 Auk sp. west.

Visible Migration

4 Lapwings in off, 6 Fieldfares east, 5 Chaffinch east and 1 Brambling east.

Others 

700 Pink-footed Geese, 400 Teal, 482 Wigeon, 1 Pintail, 1 Scaup, 2 Water Rails, 1 Peregrine, 47 Ringed Plovers, 160 Sanderlings, 57 Snipe, 2 Jack Snipe, 600 Redshanks, 305 Turnstones, 1 Barn Owl, 1 Short-eared Owl, 17 Rock Pipits, 1 Water Pipit, 47 Twite and 1 Snow Bunting.

Ringing 

31 Turnstones and 2 Starlings.

 Turnstone with leg flag fitted