We wanted to get things going again and we have several ideas for future developments once we have finished this year's breeding season.
Scope views from the shore suggested that the chicks were of very different ages--with two fully fledged a couple of weeks ago--these eggs must have been laid in January!! Our original plans were to make a first visit on Sunday 14th, but given that we could see some large chicks we decided to visit today to both ring suitable chicks and assess things for the 14th.
Our boatman ( last year's commodore), Tim ferried us across in two teams and we allowed ourselves a maximum of one hour to do what we could.
All aboard-----
and off we go!
As it turned out, we moved very quickly and calmly several of us rekindling some of our skills from visits to this site over many previous years. We were finished in 40 minutes. As expected, nest varied from eggs to almost fully fledged chicks so our visit was justified. We ringed 23 chicks and there looked to be at least as many which will be ready for our visit on 14th. Most of the adults were back on the nests by the time we had got back to the shore. If possible we will also try a visit in a few weeks time when those still on eggs should be ready.
Paul up a tree passing the chick to---
Scott who ringed it, just about big enough.
Have a look after the 14th to see how the second visit went. A big thank you to the team, Tim from the club and Paul from CRT
Great to hear the news. I used to visit the island for many years when the heronry was visited every spring and the nests counted and the chicks ringed. So it's good to hear that our local heronry which my research has shown was present nearby (long before the Reservoir was
ReplyDeletecreated), is still active and being monitored. Long may that last. I tried to get the planners to say no to the two turbines but that didn't work. My worry was and still is, that the herons could be affected as they fly and feed close to them and could be killed. My other concern is that there
are many bats that feed in that area and turning turbines can cause them to be killed (their lungs explode from the change in barometric pressure) if they fly near them. We have about half the number of British species recorded in the Rodbaston/Gailey Res area.