Sunday 22 January 2012

First Waders of 2012 - 22nd January 2012

My first SCAN wader ringing of 2012 occurred today on Weedy beach between Bangor Harbour and Porth Penrhyn. A rather impressive catch of 171 Redhshank, 5 Oystercatcher and 2 Grey Heron was made. Sadly, because I was off twinkling when the net was fired, I wasn't present to see the Grey Herons in the hand, but I could hear them squawking away! I personally processed 27 Redshank and extracted about 17 birds which I started to get the hang of by the end (I haven't done a great deal of Cannon-net extractions in the past, so was pleased that I didn't struggle too much).
(Above) 2CY bird - retained juvenile Tertails showing a 'saw toothed' pattern where the weaker areas of feather containing white pigmentation gets worn away. This bird is particularly obvious
(Below) Adult bird - adult tertails being mainly uniformly dark with the occasional black barring which is retained from summer-plumage.

(Above) 2cy bird - retained juvenile primary feathers being rather worn at the tips, rather narrow and pointed, and also being a paler brown than adult birds
(Below) Adult bird - much broader and rounder primary tips from the stronger flight feathers, and also are very fresh because they have been newly moulted.

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