The Great Bardsey Bake Off

You might be wondering what we do on our days off.......... make flapjack obviously 

Chris and Steve battle it off in the kitchen to produce the best flapjack 

Rookie mistake from Chris forgetting to melt the butter and sugar before mixing in the oats, flour and honey

No turning back now, with time almost up he needs to get it in the oven

Chris manages to pull it out the bag and produce something that resembles flapjack

Days off are also a great day to catch up on some of the blog updates

And obviously being at a bird lovers and in such a fantastic place for birds we fit in a bit of birdwatching

Withy Bashing

Bardsey has a number of net rides dotted all over the island, including at small plantation, in the observatories garden and a number through the withy's. A few of the houses on the island had their own withy's which were small plots of willow which they would then harvest and use to make things with. These withy's are now home to various net rides used to catch birds for ringing. With the willows now getting quite large, which could potentially effect the netting of birds, it was time for a chop to control the growth.

Hummmmm where to start..........

How about starting here?

Help arrives in the form of the two Steves

Pretending to work

The small branches are chipped up expertly by Patrick (note the boots!!)

The space created can also now accommodate a new low net ride running parallel with the fence.

And why not finish off a hard days work with a bit of rock jumping

is the tide far enough in yet????

woohoooo!

Manxy Tickling Part Two

In spring we identified around one hundred and fifty manx shearwater burrows that contained eggs or adult birds on eggs, this was the start of a study taken yearly to get an idea of the productivity of the manx shearwater. At this time of year there should be chicks in the burrow of a reasonable enough size to ring, weight and measure, so with an army assembled consisting of staff members, volunteers and guests we set out to our study burrows to find hopefully find some active burrows.....

 

The burrow size, shape and depth the chick is at can determine the the method used to extract the bird. Some of them are shallow enough to be able to drag them out by hand but sometimes the chicks are too deep, unless you'v got arms like Mr Tickle.

Here's a picture of Mr Tickle just incase you were deprived of Mr Men as a child

In this case we use a piece of flexible wire with a rubber hook at the end to feel our way down the hole to the chick, hook the leg (sounds easier than it is) and draw the young bird out using that method.

During this period of the young shearwaters life it is being constantly feed by the parents until it grown to an enormous size. The chick will grow larger than the parents and so big it can barely fit through the burrows entrance, the parents will then abandon the young bird who will spend the next few weeks slimming down and replacing its soft downy feathers with its flight feathers, it will then venture out at night to stretch its wings and exercise its flight muscles before making its mammoth journey ending up in south america!!!

Expecting reasonably sized young birds we were all surprised when Steve extracted this tiny chick from a hole.

AWWWW mini manxy

Emma, ringing a young shearwater

Weighing, looks strange having a manxy in a pot but they don't seem to mind

And finally all the details of the birds burrow number, ring number, weight and wing length are noted down, job done!!!

The team of Spring 2012

From Left Dan Dawson, Mark Carter, Connor, Chris Piner, Joan James, Steve Hinde, Ruth Edwards, Rich B (in front), Giselle Eagle, Mike Archer and Emma

Ground Force..............Plus Some Painting

Its got to that time of the year when the plants decide to go berserk, time for a trim.

Armed with this.... 

I went to tackle this crazy fuschia....

Result, a neatly trimmed bush.

We also have quite a few net rides around the island that need a good bash back from time to time. Knocking back the vegetation through the net rides prevents the nets getting tangled when they are unfurled for catching birds, it also keeps our trousers dry when we have to walk through looking for birds.

Before

After

Before

After

Take that Titchmarsh, Dimmock and Walsh.

Painting was also to be had, with help from Robin (friend of the Stanfields) we went at the door frames with undercoat and white gloss. Getting a reasonable amount of paint where we actually wanted it and the rest on us, the doors around the observatory are now starting to look spick-and-span.

Lords Of The Rings...... (Sorry Thats Appalling, Im Under Pressure To Think Up Interesting Puns...Thats My Excuse)

Going a bit ringing crazy in this post, first lets start with the peregrines. 

Being three or so weeks old, the Peregrine chicks are big enough to ring, enter Richard and Giselle. Upon arriving at the north end pair of nesting peregrines we were disappointed to see that there was one duff egg, however two chicks were alive and kicking and ready to be rung.

One messy nest littered with the peregrines pickings. 

One fluffy, noisy peregrine chick.

Giselle fitting the ring.

Perfect fit, one unimpressed looking rung peregrine chick.

The peregrine chicks have now fledged and have been seen on various occasions perched out on the east side rocks under the watchful eye's of mum and dad.

Choughs were also on the agenda as they too were getting to a ring-able size. Weeks earlier we had been round to the chough nests to mark the eggs to hope deter any egg collectors from nabbing the eggs.

Knowing roughly when the eggs were laid and how long the incubation period generally is we then timed our next visits to co-inside with the ringing of the chicks when they had reached the right size. Some nests are far too dangerous to just scramble into so once again 'icky' Steve worked his magic, like the S.A.S storming an embassy Steve was in and out in a flash with the hostages safe and ready for ringing.

Once the chicks were safely down it was now up to Richard and Giselle to ring them, but these aren't just any old ordinary rings. Three colour rings and one metal BTO ring are places on each chick, two on the right, two on the left. These form different colour codes depending on which colour is placed where on each leg (e.g yellow over black right leg, green over BTO left leg). As part of a large scale survey this helps to distinguish each chough, give information about where they were from and rung, and where they are next seen.

Leg, wing and weight measurements where then taken. Females having generally smaller measurements than males in each.

And last but not least the razorbills and guillemots. 

Like Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" here's Steve being watched by a gang of razorbills, managing to keep his cool he makes note of ring numbers put on new birds, eggs not yet hatched, chicks too small to ring and deceased chicks (hopefully not any).

One razorbill egg, not much of a "nest", eggs are laid straight onto bare rock. These were under rocks and boulders right at tideline, easy enough for the young too plop out the nest into the water once fledged....... Unfortunately for some chicks born on cliff ledges its a 20 meter belly flop out off the nest and like a rubbish slinky bounce off the rocks until they find their feet, these birds are build like tanks.

Another job was too, if possible, read any rings on adult birds and make note of the letter / numbering. Some were possible to read straight through binoculars but having photographic evidence of ring numbers can help if later reference is needed. 

 

Once adult birds were rung it was a quick toss up into the air to get them airborne and a safe flight into the sea five or so meters away.

(Out of context this next picture does look pretty weird but I thought i'd include it anyway to finish off the "launch sequence") 

"Hallelujah I can walk again, praise the lord"