Thankyou, on behalf of the little bird.

Bad news I'm afraid.....

The little Housemartin will not be travelling to Africa, after all, I'm afraid. I've just found her dead. She was fine when she went to sleep at 11.00pm, and I've just looked in on her at 3.30am, and she's no longer breathing. Sorry about that folks. I'll try and find some good news for later.

The little martin goes to visits cousins

Hi all.

Dell (the little martin) went out last night. We were out to monitor a reed-bed roosting flock of swallows. We were able to collect and take measurements from 42 swallows, 1 sandmartin, and a sedge warbler. We had caught them at last light, so kept them in the building overnight and released them in the morning. They had a dry night, the weather was terrible all night.



Dell has taken to nesting between a pair of Thinsulate gloves, which do a fine job of brooding her in the absence of a mother.




A swallow about to be released... Ready...






Steady.....



Go!

Meet the new bird!

Hiya all,

It's happened again.... A young bird, broken nest, dead adult.... Who gets to do the fostering? Me and pleased to do so again.

She's sitting in her "nest", chirping at me, which is great, she couldn't manage to swallow a worm after a day without food. She's doing remarkably well for a lack of food of that duration, being kept hydrated probably made all the difference. It bodes well for the resilience of the bird. Well done Brenda. She has now managed her fourth worm, and that one was so big that it crawled out 3 times....



House Martins don't eat worm's I hear you saying.... Well this one does now. She's picking up well, she has the energy to chirp, and to fight with a worm the size of her crop (stomach-type thing that birds have...).



The question is.... will she be fit in time to go to Africa? We'll see how many worms she can eat in a fortnight!



Let's cross our fingers, and NO JIM, I'M NOT GOING TO KNECK IT!

UPDATE on 24th......

She managed around 10 worms by bedtime and chirped herself to sleep.... 5 worms before my breakfast and 2 already for lunch, she's resting now.... Photo's will be updated later....

We're suggesting "Dell" as her name, after her latin name, is that ok?

Chris's 40th!

I've just arrived back from Chris's "Suprise 40th Birthday Party". About the only surprise that he got was that I turned up! ..... Not much of a surprise on your "Special Day!", but it was the best that I could manage. Due to airport security I couldn't even take him a bottle of Irish whiskey.
















Even Squelshy (Eazy-man-Giro) managed to make it, and he can be anything up to a year late. Honest, different xmas all together.... And then he normally falls asleep, so this is a great picture of him, he has his eyes open!














And I was as cool as ever.... With a wee hipflask in my back pocket... bought as a present for me from Chris and 'Dell on their big day, and subsequently missing until a couple of weeks ago.... my stuff ended up in someones car when we moved pressys and cake and t'ings.





I also forgot my pin number on my phone, so wasn't able to take any photo's, (and now I'm wondering how I managed to get this!... must have took it on my other phone and sent it to my main phone.... it's complicated), so I'll be trusting that he'll send me a couple for my blog. Hopefully he'll send me my "lucky hat" back as well, which I appear to have left down the pub. They look after things there for me, they had a glove for six months, a jacket for another six..... I hope I get my hat back sooner. It's my "lucky hat"!



That's all for now folks, I need to get some rest before I start the evenings work.... No piece for the wicked..... I know what I spelt...

No pics today, it was raining and then it was dark...

Hiya all,

No pictures today, you might be pleased to hear. Had a rainy wet day, driving around seeing who’d cut this week, and the answer was very few, and no-one on any of the active corncrake sites that I monitor.

In defence of the farmers, after my negative feelings last week, most of the none-active meadows have been completely cut, and are getting a grazing on the new growth. Most of my corncrake active callows (winter-flooded meadows), have not had a blade of grass cut yet. A couple of them have been turned into corncrake fortresses. They’ve held strong, even in the face of high hay prices due to a summer drought. The ones that sell hay could be making a profit. Those having to buy are losing money, by not cutting their own. Enough said. Respect to “Drumlosh”, “Curraghnaboll”, “Mather’s” and Clonmacnoise” in that order.

I managed to get out tonight recording on a bat survey. I was asked for my torch, but decided to take it myself. We were recording Daubenton’s Bats at Shannon Harbour. We walked 10 100m stretches recording for 5 minutes at each marker, and recorded 5 passes of bat at 35 Hz (calling frequency of this bat). We also saw 2 shooting stars, one dubious, which I was just reporting, when the second came down like a magnesium emergency flare. Brightest thing in the sky. Wow!

I’ve been toying around with another couple of blogspots. See the two links, My Space, and My Bebo, just to see what I could do with music and pictures and things. I’ve been teaching myself how to mess with HTML and stuff. I’ve downloaded some music programs for converting and uploading MP3 music files, linked to videos and all kinds of things. Just getting to grips with it all. I’ve had a few comments, and made a few online contacts. It’s been nice. Thank god for the distractions, I could end up an internet junkie. It’s bad enough that I’ve also learnt the maps on Novalogic, Delta Force Extreme. Got another promotion another medal… Sad, eh? American rank of 1st Sergeant (2nd Tour), with 6 medals or more now………… 2 Campaign Service Medals, Marksman Medal with 2 Bars, Hill Giant Award and Vehicle Commander Award…… (It’s not serious, OK?......For those that don’t know a 1st Sergeant doesn’t come 1st , he comes last after Master Sergeant…. Damn Yanks. Change everything, even the Irish weather.

So that’s been my weekend, really. What have you all been up to?

Davy

Not a good week for The Water Rail Family

This week was not a good week for this Water Rail family....

The farmer had signed an agreement not to cut until the 1st of September, but decided to cut earlier. He was imformed that a corncrake had been calling from his meadow.

Despite the presence of two corncrake fieldworkers, we were unable to prevent the deaths of these young birds. The two which had their legs cut off were still alive, it was the plaintive pleeping of one bird that alerted me to their plight. It was my unfortunate job to dispatch the two of them, hence the neck cut almost in two.

The job is good on a good day, not on a bad day. The day had started with a male Hen Harrier working the meadow.... The day before was a mowing watch day and in two hours I saw Hen Harrier, Marsh Harrier and Peregrin Falcon.... A much better Day!

Minke Whale (2001)

The lull before the storm….

Hiya all,

I’ve got a weekend off…. Unless the farmers go out cutting!

I’ve just checked Birdwatch Ireland’s messages again, and no-one has rang in with cutting news. So, I have a noggin of Hennessy and a bottle of port. It’s a gorgeous day outside but I’m going stay in, blog, watch movies and that sort of thing….

Last night I talked my dad through uploading a copy of a photo that I have back in England. He photographed the photo and sent it to me. So I’ll share it…. The story with it would be that I’d been living in Shetland and been working away doing survey work, and arrived back at the Shetland Biological Record Centre, to find a distraught message that on my home island, Bressay, there was a stranded whale and the tide was falling. There was one ferry that would arrive in time, the second ferry would be too late, and could any-one get there that could help...

I met a team on the ferry, with dry-suits and a vet. We were able to get the whale up, turned around and relaunched. The ferry and the local lighthouse were able to follow the whale to it’s regrouping with it’s pod.

I’ve never felt so good in my whole life. I thought that I’d share that.

I’m the fat guy on the left. No-one showed me how to let the trapped air out. I was floating most of the time, struggling to get my feet down to walk. On the upside it added extra lift to my end of the straps. The whale had a small wound, about 10 inches long and a couple of inches deep. The vet said that was no problem to an animal of this size. I produced a pen-knife. I asked if I could get a similar slice, as I’d never eaten whale-meat, the others fell out with me! Crikey, I was taking very expert advice, and saving a young whale’s life. There’s no understanding some folk…….

I then went back home and watched my sparrow population eat 6 pints of bird food in less than 2 hours... wicked.

I remember the day so well.

Hiya all,



x

I went out last night to catch swallows…Swallows tend to roost (at this time of year), in reed-beds. When they’ve finished breeding, the adults join the first brood in the reed-beds. This flock test their flying skills prior to the autumn migration. When everyone is ready to go, they’re all off to sub-Sahara Africa.

This offers ornithologists an ideal opportunity to capture the birds and get biometric data (data relating to their body condition). It also allows us to measure the success that they have had during the breeding season, e.g. the proportion of juveniles in the population.


Last night our dedicated team of 3 went out using 120 feet of netting into the depths of a reedbed at night, using a decoy call, a call which represents a roosting colony…. To encourage them in to our catching area.

In one respect, last night can be considered to be a huge success, in that two thirds of the team were able to examine and ring species with which they were not yet experienced with at this level, with an specialist bird-handler, familiar with targeted species, on hand. I ringed my 107th species of bird and accrued a valuable piece of training. I was shown 2 different biometrical tests to apply to a bird, that I have not yet learn't, in order to determine it’s development, it's fitness to migrate, (measurements which are currently being applied worldwide). Another colleague was able to progress his own personal development, similarly, with another species.




We caught 2 birds, one swallow and one sand martin……

Davy