Welsh Cormorant on the boating lake

The good thing about Cormorants is that they're big, so have big rings that with patience can be read on confiding birds. In the last couple of years we've had reports of two birds from Little Saltee Island, Co Wexford: a chick from 2106 seen at Helston Boating Lake in July 2017 and a chick from 2010 seen at Swanpool in December 2018.

The latest though was a bird ringed as a chick on Puffin Island, Anglesey last year that was photographed on Friday at Helston Boating Lake.

Thanks to Terry Thirlaway for the photo and for passing the info on.

A catch up with some colour-ringed regulars

With the weather once again too windy for mist-netting, it was a good time to get out and catch up with a few old colour-ringed friends. One of the most interesting birds is 23D8, which we've blogged about several times before (here and here)! It had been seen yet again coming through the Camel estuary earlier in the autumn, but we hadn't managed to see it yet at Helston Boating Lake. But all in good time, it reappeared this week (22nd), back on its usual rail.

The gulls at the boating lake are always very obliging,
lining up on the railings to have their legs checked
(23D8 is actually the closest bird)

It was then on to Men-aver beach, where there's always a good selection of Med Gulls to look through. But with neap tides refusing to drop, there were only 40 birds here. Three of these had just metal rings, and only one colour-ringed bird. Red PLP2 is a Polish-ringed bird, ringed as a chick in June 2012, and has been seen in March 2013 and March 2014 at Pett Level, Sussex, and later at Ferrybridge, Dorset, in January 2015. This is the first time it's been reported from Cornwall though, so it'll be interesting to see if it stays.

Last but not least, a brief high-tide stop at Devoran produced one of our regular Curlews, again one we've blogged about before (here). 'SA was ringed in The Netherlands in June 2013 and is a regular wintering bird on the estuary.

So if we get the chance, get out and look for some colour-ringed birds of your won, as their histories can get rather addictive!

Helston gulls and our first Skylarks

After putting up a new Barn Owl box with the National Trust yesterday, I couldn't resist stopping off with a loaf of bread at Helston Boating Lake to see what gulls were around. I soon had a good gathering of Black-headed Gulls, along with a few other scroungers. The few birds there included the regular White 23D8 from Berkshire, but also a young Herring Gull with a nice blue ring!

W:047 was ringed on an industrial estate roof in Falmouth in June. This is only 15km from Falmouth, but still interesting to see it leaving the town rather than hovering round eating chips.

White 23D8 and Blue W:047 hanging out together

Later in the afternoon we then set nets out at Predannack in the hope of catching some of the 100+ Skylark using the set-aside fields there. Setting up seven nets in an 'H' pattern, we put a 'tape' on pre-dawn and at first light walked the adjacent field, moving over 30 birds towards the nets. But with a little too much dawn light, we only managed to catch eight birds, but now know better for next time (tomorrow). These are the first Skylark ringed by the group and weighing in at almost 40g some were quite impressive!

Swithching the 'tape' (actually an MP3 player) to Meadow Pipit, which seem to be less wary of nets in daylight, we topped up the day's catch with 16 Meadow Pipits.

Bit hard to see, but the 'H' of nets now furled for tomorrow morning

23D8 returns

It's that time of year when we should be out catching migrants, but it's also the time of year when the weather is never calm enough to open nets. So it's also the time to await the arrival of some of our returning winter birds, including some real creatures of habit. One such regular is 23D8 that we've blogged about before (see here).

Breeding in its natal colony at Hosehill Lake, Berkshire, 23D8 is a regular winter visitor to Helston Boating Lake, but in recent years has paused briefly on the Camel estuary en route to Helston. This winter it arrived back bang on cue on 24th October, and for once we thought it had slipped through the Camel estuary unnoticed, but having just heard back from the ringer, that's apparently not the case!

23D8, third from the right (honestly!), back on bread-stealing duty

Over the last few years, 23D8's movements can be summarised as...

• last seen in Berkshire June 2012
• Camel estuary 4th October 2012
• Helston Boating Lake 21st October 2012 (to 1st March 2013)
• back in Berkshire by 19th March 2013 (last seen 2nd July 2013)
• Camel estuary 22nd July 2013 (and again 24th August)
• Helston Boating Lake 17th October 2013 (to 16th February 2014)
• back in Berkshire 9th March 2014 (last seen 4th June 2014)
• Camel estuary 23rd June 2014 (and again 3rd October 2014)
• Helston Boating Lake 24th October 2014

Pretty much the only other ringing we've managed recently was this very rusty rehabilitated Tawny Owl ringed at the Screech Owl Sanctuary last week. This is part of a long-term project monitoring the success of their rehab programme.