Belvide Ringers on Tour !!

After the recent very successful Belvide post breeding ringing season several team members are on the road.
Pat and his partner Linda are travelling round British Columbia in an RV--not doing any ringing but sending back some cracking images:-

A super view in the Rockies

Before he went I set him the task of getting a pic of a Varied Thrush--more often heard than seen. I didn't expect him to succeed, but as this picture shows he certainly did--big time!! Well done Pat

It's a real stunner.

Sadly I haven't been able to attach the best item which is a short video of a chance encounter with a black bear seen catching an enormous fish--sorry folks but my IT skills are sadly lacking. If I can get someone else to sort it for me I will post it later.

 

 

Meanwhile Kev and son Gareth decided to spend a week on the tiny island of Bressay in the Shetlands--ringing in partnership with the Shetland RG. They are staying in a house with probably the only garden on the island with trees and shrubs--making it a magnet for birds:-

Prior to their first day, easterly winds had been blowing and, as they tend to do at this time of year, they had displaced migrant birds from their more easterly migration routes. They could barely believe their luck when first-----

---this Little Bunting dropped into a net. Breeding in the taiga forests of northern Europe and Russia, only about 250 individuals of this species have ever been ringed in Britain. To be fair it's not a spectacular looking species, but the next special bird--a Yellow Browed Warbler, is a little gem

Up until about 15 years ago, this species was an extreme rarity here. They also breed in the northern forests and most migrate south to spend the Winter from  India to China. Over recent times they seem to have expanded their breeding range west and in  most years now we can expect several hundred 'Yellow Brows' in Britain at this time of year. Nevertheless a brilliant bird to catch.

The winds then turned strong and south west holding up their ringing and confining it to local birds like this Wren

and this Starling

Both of these belong to the 'Zetlandensis' sub species --but you would be pushed to notice that from pictures.!!

Eventually winds eased and migration from the north east restarted as shown by this Redwing

These delightful small thrushes breed in taiga and tundra regions and come to Britain in their hundreds of thousands during October and November.

Winds have turned easterly again so I hope that they will get some more cracking birds over the last couple of days of their trip--fingers crossed.

The boys had a fantastic sighting of a bull and several smaller members of a pod of Orcas--a lifer for them. I haven't been able to download and attaché their video either --sorry!!

 

Meanwhile back at the ranch Pete has started his annual Redwing catching sessions in a walled garden near home.

This is the first bird of this season--from now until just before Christmas--but I hear that numbers are building so we hope he can get near his 2000 bird record.

 

Several team members are off to the Algarve on Monday for the annual ringing trip to Vilamoura--accompanied as usual by guests invited from three other ringing groups. I will try to post our activities here but the wifi can be temperamental so please bear with me........