First Trawl of the Year

Okay, I know I don't usually post things from work here, but I had such a lovely day yesterday I really had no option. The boss, John Curry (QML master's student) and I were out on the RV Actinia collecting flatfish and Langoustine (doubling up on boat use to minimise sea bed damage FTW). In beautiful weather we left Millport pier at about half 10, heading for the main channel and Skelmorlie. Hardly a breathe of wind, so low on birds unfortunately, but never the less Phil and I had cameras to hand. 

The start of the morning past slowly, and the lack of birds was a bit of a disappointment. The first tow was taking an age to haul in, and our skipper, Campbell, told us there was probably a lot of mud in the trawl. I wasn't prepared for quite how much...

Oh dear...

Well, we couldn't do anything about it, so out came the gloves and in we dove. John was sans wellies and the boss was without his overalls so it was up to me to dive in with the muddy catch.

Luckily something had warned me to pull on my overalls that morning...

Kenny was my hero, sluicing of the mud as we worked. Between the four of us we soon had the deck cleared and the mud washed and swept back into the sea.

"You hose, I'll pick..."

"Look, there ARE fish in here!"

Afterwards Kenny got even further into my good books, providing caffeine and biscuits all round. Excellent! We then steamed up to Skelmorlie and deployed the net again.

John fuels up in the sun after out first bout with the mud

The amount of wildlife around picked up as we moved up the Clyde and our discarded catch caused a lot more interest in our boat. Finally we could get some shots in, although unfortunately none of the gannets today.

This unfortunate Greater Black Back has rope tangled around one leg, luckily this was only a small piece.

Remarkably brave Guillemots, the closest I've seen these birds without them having a major freak out

A large male Grey seal which followed the boat looking for scraps

As we returned to Kepple Pier with our catch the Eiders were waiting with their ridiculously adorable ducklings, giving us the chance of a last few snaps before we stepped back onto terra firma.

Eiders congregate around the pier were they dive for molluscs and other foods

(just) Another Day in Paradise

I love living in Scotland. Every time I step out of my door I encounter something I didn't expect. This morning I realised that I haven't shown you all my Breeding Bird Survey square. Thankfully I was over at Lochwinnoch this afternoon, and planned an early trip to wander up there for a casual visit... I didn't make it.

I packed the camera and, fully dressed for an afternoon's volunteering, I set off. Turned off in Lochwinnoch to take the windy single track road to Muirshiel Country Park; windows open, and enjoying the drive. I was the second car into the car park. I pulled out my bins, grabbed my rucksack, and headed out. 

I only passed two groups on the way out, and managed to swifty clock up 4 calling cuckoos, a wheat ear, a couple of pied wags, a treecreeper, carrion crow, grouse, a solitary swallow, and skylarks and meadow pips galore. All in all, a peaceful morning. Even nice enough to lose my jacket. Then, half way along my route to the top, I went to cross what is usually a slightly spongy section of ground at the head of a stream. First step and the ground turned to mush.... I went in up to my knee. Instinct? Step Out! Result? I was suddenly up to my HIPS in the water! 

Thank goodness I learned my survival skills. Leaning forward, I spread my weight and pulled myself out. Looking down at my soaked trousers, I could feel the water running down my gaiters and into my boots... 

BOOTS OFF! SOCKS OFF! Preserve the dryness (only partially successfully)!

I wrote off my walk to the top. Settling down to dry in the sun and much on my picnic in the hour before I was due at the reserve. 

Surprisingly warm toes!

My square is the other side of that hill...

...so I get not only some productive birding, but a nice walk too!

The top of the Calder at Muirshiel

An hour later I arrived at Lochwinnoch Reserve, ready for my shift. The feeders were a hive of activity. And unlike last weekend (and me) the weather was wonderfully dry.

During the afternoon the female starling bought her newly fledged brood to the feeders. By 5pm the female sparrowhawk had taken everyone. Still, the other birds were looking in great shape (unfortunately I didn't get any great pictures of the wonderfully coloured breeding plumage male redpolls - they were stunning).

Even without the rain, the feeders remain buzzing

My highlight of the day was definitely the show Greater Spotted, who whizzed between the feeders and the stands of trees to either side of the centre through out the afternoon.

I was completely distracted by this fine fellow who happily sat outside the visitor centre window.

Great plumage & tonnes of charisma

Hopefully there's a full nest somewhere and we'll be seeing little red-capped spotties soon!

So, despite the soaking, an excellent day! Sad for the starlings, but still early enough for a second brood. Keep your eyes on the fledglings over the next few weeks, they make great targets for birds of prey and may bring excellent sightings. Good hunting!

Faster then a speeding bullet....

...that's how they'll describe my dash for the showers after finishing this the Race for Life at Glasgow Green in only 15 days time. I'm definitely not a runner and I'm not holding out hopes of getting round in a quick time, but I'll start out running, and I'll finish it running and in the process I'm aiming to raise £250 for cancer research. Why not stump up a few pounds or run along with me!

You can get donating at my Just Giving page!

Lochwinnoch at the Ayr Show

Phew! What a weekend! Shattered doesn't even begin to cover it. A couple of quick emails from the reserve have seen me taking on 3 extra days this month (not bad for a newbie!). 

Friday and Saturday at the Ayr Country Show and Sunday on the reserve, brilliant fun!

My "weekend" started at 6 am on Friday morning, getting ready to go help Rita set up the stand (which basically meant Rita capably organised everything, and I helped shift stuff from the car and basically got under her feet. And it was FREEZING. We shivered away as the school kids trooped past and grabbed the occasional coffee and hot soup where we could!

The Saturday I got a lovely lie in until 7:30 as I was picking up extra stock from the reserve and we did a steady trade in fluffy owls and pin-badges. With me occasionally disappearing to find things to stuff my face with or visiting the excellent Shaw's Meats stand (I ended up buying venison stew mix, wood pigeon breast, wild boar salami, biltong, and ostrich, kangaroo, springbok and vension burgers!). Our stand was handily next to one from the Great Grog Company, who sent us away with a few nice taster bottles. Both of these companies deliver and I can heartily recommend their wares!

Rita and Nigel were brilliant stand-mates (and didn't mind me vanishing in search of more food!)

Herring Gull feet- the only birds I saw all day

Attempting to convince a nice Irish man that Buzzards aren't all that bad!

Sunday it was slinging it down. And my attempts at getting any good pictures on the reserve were pretty much thwarted. Everything looked damp and miserable, however, there was high drama on the pond when a marauding heron went for our teenage ducklings (a big mouthful for any predator). 

This mother has done well to get 8 chicks this far with our resident herons around (just look at her determination!)

The rain kept the centre pretty quiet and allowed us to get on with moving some stock, but the birds came to the feeders regardless, looking for an easy (if a little damp) meal. So remember guys - even if it's raining - come in and say hello, get yourself a hot chocolate, and enjoy some comfortable birding! Happy spotting!

Damp Chaffs

My one "keeper" of the day, a damp disgruntled Jacky

Poor soggy redpolls

"These one's are wet, I want his..."

Making Friends (warning, lots of pictures!)

Over the last month there have been a lot of students coming and going at the marine station, which means I've been playing out on the boats and the shore a lot (and trying to keep up with office work the rest of the time).

First up were 100 students from Glasgow university. 6 boats trips run so we could get them all through. Thank goodness everyone was on the ball. The first trip on Thursday was.... lumpy... and I did have one very sick student, but everything had flattened out by Friday morning and (following a quick bit of boat maintenance) we had 3 lovely trips.

I was out on the RV Actina with Kenny and Campbell. On the trips we demonstrate a beam trawl and a grab to provide samples for identification. Along with receiving information on the Clyde ecosystem the students are encouraged to get their hands dirty. 

Kenny expertly demonstrates proper use of the grab

And Campbell ties off the cod end of the beam trawl ready to go

And this is what we got... 

including a very unhappy sea scorpion

Although you wouldn't know it now we also had a spate of gorgeous weather which makes for brilliant sunsets.

Also haunting the shores and seas of the Clyde were Sussex University. A lovely small group which freed me up to not only get a lot of my own work done, but to take some pretty pictures. It also meant that both myself and the boss could get out on the boats, so we had good sightings of the returning sea birds along with harbour porpoises and fantastic views.

We were out on Aora, the larger of out two boats, which is a great platform for survey work. Aora also takes on contract work and is equipped for lived aboard trips, unfortunately I've yet to find an excuse to go out and join them on a trip.

A lazy Pagarus hitches a lift on his larger tank mate

Waiting for the sun to burn off on the boat trips

Phil distracts students with the contents of the grab sample enabling me to take a few sneaky pictures

Its amazing how much happier people are when its sunny...

And last, but by no means least, these are my new American friends from Colgate University, New York, who are spending a semester in the UK. My first group that I've helped out on solo... SO MUCH FUN! 

And so enthusiastic. I managed to get pictures of other peoples faces on the boats, but this group were elbow deep in the catch trying to find something new and I barely got a look in! 

Below are pictures from our rocky shore transect. Here we looked at distribution of rocky shore specialist species and carried out a timed Shore-Thing search for invasive species.

The guys waste no time in running out their transect line using the range poles to calculate the beach profile

Whilst Damhnait is watching one group I took the opportunity to snap a sneaky photo.

The students head out to White Bay for their second survey

Not stone on the island was left unturned (but all were carefully turned back again)

Swift surveys prevent trouble with the tide

I measure the danger factor in Wellies. For example this student ins 2/3rds of a Wellie away from wet feet.

Netted whelk, Hinia reticulata, from Brandy Bay  

I hope that everyone who was around last month had as much fun as I did. Come back any time!

Say hello to Lochwinnoch's latest shop-girl!

That's right folks, twice a month I'll be shipping my ass off the island to spend a shift chatting to people and serving them coffee in the RSPB's lovely Lochwinnoch Nature Reserve!

I spent the sunny part of Saturday there, chasing treecreepers in the shade.... go me... (the results are below) I also got lovely views (but awful shots) of the male Smew that has been hanging around for the past month, and saw my nemeses, the long-tailed tits, building a snug looking nest.

I can't wait to have an excuse to roll over to the reserve more frequently. Expect numerous pictures soon!

Not so cryptic now, are we?!

I love treecreepers white little bellies, so in contrast with their mottled upper.

This picture is for Kathy, who has been blue.

Cracking Cake at the BBS Course

I'll never turn down a free course, especially when its something I'm passionate about. I took on my first Breeding Bird Survey square this year, and on Saturday I got myself on the 7 30 ferry and hot footed it down to Dumfries for run through of the tips and techniques for a successful survey. For those of you unfamiliar with BBS, it is a joint survey managed by BTO, RSPB, and the JNCC, which aims to

"make standardised counts on randomly-located sites during the breeding season, enabling us to monitor changes in numbers of over 100 widespread bird species"

So now you know!

After a little wobble finding the venue in beautiful Islesteps I was happy to walk into the hall and find it awash with comfortable khaki and practical shoes... This was definitely the place!

The course itself was being taught by Rob Bray, Anne Cotton and Edmund Fellowes (thanks for giving up your time guys). After brief introductions and the chance to grab a coffee we kicked off with an introduction to habitat surveys. A great little lecture making a possibly daunting part of the BBS seem suddenly very simple.Then it was on with the wellies to have a go for ourselves!

The first chance to play outside came with an example of habitat classification from Edward.

Now none of us can claim we don't know what unimproved grassland looks like.

Following lunch and some wonderfully tasty home made chocolate cake courtesy of Mrs Fellowes (yes I hit the gym on the way home), it was time to get to the business of birds. Thankfully the methodology for the survey is pretty straight forward. Two kilometre long transects broken down into five 200m segments. Recording birds seen and heard by proximity to account for their conspicuousness (an algorithm is used to help estimate the numbers of more cryptic species that may be overlooked if any great distance away).

Next, to get a feel for the survey, we broke up into teams and headed out to do our own transects. Luckily my ears hadn't gotten too rusty over winter and I could still pick out most species, and we ended up seeing some really nice birds.

The dream team carry out their practice transect - dodging cars and low flying buzzards

Umpteen jackdaws, rooks, chaffs, blue tits, siskins, a peregrine, four or five buzzards, a tree creeper, three G-S woodpeckers and a couple of starlings later, and we were back in the hall to find out how to record our sitings.

A final session on data entry and we were all set (note delicious cake on tables)

Personally, I found this course a great intro to the BBS process and can't wait to get out to my square. The enthusiasm shown by everyone on the day was fantastic. If there's a course near you, go along, find out if BBS is for you. You can get a list of free squares near you from your BTO Regional Rep.

Happy Birding!