Showing posts with label River Ringing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label River Ringing. Show all posts

Saturday, 30 March 2019

River Tripple Crown

With the persistent weekend winds keeping the nets down at the Bann Estuary I decided to try a little river ringing. In recent years we have kept much of the river ringing for training purposes plus the continuation of Ken's study of the Irish Dipper.

I headed over to the River Rhee on Saturday the 23rd of March which is our regular hotspot for Dipper, Grey Wagtail and Kingfisher where we have caught a number of the years.

Dipper

I had an instant capture of a retrap Dipper which I had originally ringed on the 26th of March 2016 before another bird bounced out of the net twice- I  keep the bottom shelf quite tight to ensure the bag of the net doesn't droop into the water with the weight of a bird but at the same not too high to allow the birds to fly under easily.

Kingfishers (female top - male bottom)


Next up was a pair of Kingfishers in the net, again one slipped out but the male came back down and was captured on the second pass.

Grey Wagtail

A always find Grey Wagtails the most difficult to capture and today was no different as they always notice the net - flying over, around, walking under it and evading capture. I got lucky with one towards the end of the session but it's partner wouldn't join it.

Wood Anemone