Devon and Cornwall Wader Ringing Group

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We got a third successful cannon net catch under our belts at the weekend, we caught 50 Oystercatchers and a Bar-tailed Godwit. Three of the Oystercatchers were already colour-ringed, and we colour ringed the remaining 47.

oystercatcher AC 28 09 2019Colour-ringed Oystercatcher 'AC'A further 10 adult Oystercatchers were fitted with GPS tags, which is fantastic and will hopefully generate a lot of useful data over the coming winters. We had hoped for a catch of around 200 birds, which would have given us a good chance of catching enough juveniles to be able to GPS tag a sample of this years birds. However, the tide did not reach its expected height which gave the birds other roost options away from the selected catch area, so we did well to take any catch in the circumstances. As we didn’t catch any juveniles, we held back 10 tags to deploy when hopefully we catch some during mist netting sessions.

We'd like to thank everyone involved in making the catch happen, with huge thanks to Ryan Burrell for all his hard work in organising the catch. A massive thank you is due to Robin Ward, the cannon net licence holder who led the catch, especially after he and Judith arrived so late on Thursday night from Cambridge and then up early for the recconnaisance on Friday. Many thanks also Andrew Hoodless, who with Chris Heward, fitted the GPS tags, and to Lizzie Grayshon the other folks at GWCT – without whose support the GPS tagging just would not be possible. I would also like to thank Pete Potts and the Farlington Ringing Group for loan of kit again, and Ruth Croger for making the droppers so quickly after the Wader Study Group conference. I know people travel a long way so thanks to Lucy Hawkes and Nik Ward for hosting members of the team.

Thanks also to the Teignbridge Ranger Team (Phil, Steve and Stephen) for all the help and support and loaning the group 14 pairs of waders! Our thanks for the ongoing support of the Warren Golf Club, who allow us to use their club track for access, and to their members for putting up with occasional interruptions to their game. Once the birds have been colour ringed, the work continues so thanks to Ivan Lakin and Lee Collins and the rest of the Dawlish Warren Recording Group for their important work on re-sighting, and for twinkling birds from Finger Point and the Island roost areas. This winter we hope increase the re-sighting effort with Lucy Hawkes' students from Exeter University, most of whom attended the catch.

CN team 28 09 2019

Aims

The aims of the Devon and Cornwall Wader Ringing Group are to study the wading birds that live in, or pass through, Devon and Cornwall.

We hope to undertake fieldwork approximately once a month, mainly at weekends, involving either mist-netting or the use of a cannon net. Members of the group live across Britain, although many are based in Devon. A key site for fieldwork is the Exe Estuary and in particular Dawlish Warren National Nature Reserve, where we have a project on colour ringed Oystercatcher.

Birds are marked with individually numbered metal leg rings and, to aid relocation without the need to recapture them, with colour rings. Under special license we are also fitting GPS tags to a small number of birds to help understand the way they use the habitats around the estuary through the winter and at different states of the tide.

Links

The Dawlish Warren Recording Group publish regular updates on the birds seen at Dawlish Warren.

The county bird clubs are Devon Birds and the Cornwall Bird Watching and Preservation Society.

Bird ringing in Britain is licensed and coordinated by The British Trust for Ornithology. More information on why we ring birds and why we use colour marks on our study species can be found here. Bird ringing in Europe is coordinated by EURING.

The definitive database of all colour-marking schemes for waders in Europe and the East Atlantic flyway is available on the International Wader Study Group website. All editions of their publications (Wader Study, Wader Study Group Bulletin and International Wader Studies) are available online

For species other than waders the European colour-ring Birding website, voluntarily maintained by Dirk Raes, should be useful.

Join us

The group welcomes volunteer ringers from anywhere who are interested in taking part in the fieldwork, although membership of the group is open to all, whether or not you hold a bird-ringing license. Please bear in mind that we need to have a good balance of experience across the team for each session, but we do our best to accommodate and train the less experienced.

The current membership fee is £5 per year, running from November to October. You can register and join here.

Acknowledgements

The group operates with the excellent support of Teignbridge District Council and Devon Wildlife Trust as landowners of Dawlish Warren. Warren Golf Club kindly allow access across their land.

We are also grateful to he RSPB and David King for allowing us to operate on their land at Exminster Marshes and to Torridge District Council for co-ordinating permissions at Northam Burrows.

The value of the projects would not be fully realised without the excellent re-sighting work undertaken and publicised by the Dawlish Warren Recording Group.

We are grateful to Natural England for funding the rings and GPS tags, and for providing staff time for ongoing management of the projects. We are also grateful to the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) for staff time for fitting the GPS tags, organising the project and dealing with data. Devon Birds have generously provided some funding for colour rings.

Header images on this website are licensed under the Creative Commons license by the photographers.

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