Birds Burgers booze and Banding

Just had 3 days of bliss ringing Wildfowl  at WWT centres Martin Mere and Caerlaverock.

Meeting up with Old friends and putting names to faces i see on Blogs and Twitter

Great to see Kane, Ciaran, Craig, Steve and Dave Sowter again.

Kane Martin Mere

Kev and Steve Martin Mere

After the catch at Martin Mere Steve was planning to catch some Juvenile Mute Swans at Southport Marine Lake all part of The North West Swan Ringing Scheme which the Isle of Man is playing a part in

16 New Juv Mute Swans were Ringed and 1 Adult.

Nice afternoon Birding at Leighton Moss as well brought

Marsh Tit  Bullfinch Nuthatch and Snow Geese

Then off up to Caerlaverock a great evening spent in The Premier Inn at Dumfries with a few to many beers sank

The a leisurely big breakfast and we all met at 10:30

It was my first visit and it was great, driving down to the centre and seeing the huge flocks of Barnacle Geese in the fields 

After a good talk on who was doing what and when, we got ready for the catch

A great day with

147 Whooper Swans Processed of which 67 were new birds and 80 were retraps

in with them as well 57 Mute Swans.

We also met  Sverrir Thorstensen at Caerlaverock one of the ringers we met in Iceland last year who was visiting with his wife.

It was great to see we controlled one of his colour ringed birds from Iceland while he was there.
The bird he’s holding here was 7YZ ringed as an adult in 1997 so is well over 16years old
Its colour ring was changed due to wear and tear and is now Z7V

A big Thanks To Kane for inviting us and all the staff at the WWT Centres

Then the drive back to Heysham to catch the 02:45  ferry back to The Isle of Man

On the way back we stopped off to see my Daughter who now lives in Ulveston which was great

an all round great 3 days of Birds Burgers booze and Banding