For some time the impacts of displacement of red-throated divers from windfarms have been known to be adverse - but impossible to quantify. I'm lucky enough to have been working on a project with JNCC that will investigate how much additional energetic strain red-throats can take away from the breeding grounds, using GLS and time depth recording tags. I've been working on Shetland during spring 2018 and will hopefully get to spend some more time out here to carry on the project in spring and summer 2019 and 2020!

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June 2 2018.

 

The initial workload has been to locate birds breeding on small lochs, suitable for trapping and tagging the birds under licence. This has meant plodding over the moors of Shetland for a week (in glorious sunshine, mostly) finding nest sites which will give us two trapping options (using nest traps, and the more traditional 'Okill method' using wader netting). So far we've ('we' being myself and Logan Johnson, a rare combination of Shetlander and birder) found plenty of good sites and hope to start trapping in earnest next week. As well as seeing plenty of divers we're coming across loads of other moorland specialities such as skuas, merlins, and breeding waders galore, including plenty of whimbrel.

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Of course spending time in Shetland in late May/early June has its perks. Not only does it look stunning a lot of the time, but there are various goodies to look out for too. Among a suite of common migrants we've bumped into red-backed shrike and marsh warbler, as well as conveniently happening to pass by a spot where a golden oriole was singing... 

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June 3 2018.

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A day around Sandgarth due to car issues. Gus and Kerstin arrive, and within 30 minutes a golden oriole has started singing in the Sandgarth garden. It hangs around for the best part of the day. A lovely bird to find.

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June 4 2018

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A great day searching for (and finding!) catchable diver sites, but it can really be summed up in two photo's... 

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June 5 2018

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Another very productive day! We managed to get tags on our first diver at the first attempt, and with only slight teething problems with the firing mechanism of our new nest traps. We then have a fail at another site (we were sure that our presence near the nest was discouraging the bird from returning, so we promptly cleared out) but the disappointment is mitigated by news of the presence of a snowy owl on a nearby hillside. It was on our way home so it would have been rude not to....  

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June 6 2018

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A full day trapping, with no new birds caught, building upon the frustration of not catching anything at our second site the day before. After a good start, we are now one catch at three attempts, so will have to consider some new tactics. It was not all doom and gloom though, as the bearded seal made a visit to Lerwick during civilised hours, and just when we happened to be about three miles away! Again, it would have been rude not to...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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June 7 2018

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A good day all round. With a little effort we catch and tag our second bird - a big male. Initially both birds appear reluctant to go onto the nest (where we trap them) but we soon realise it's because they know we're still around. After beating a tactical retreat one bird soon returns to the nest, and is now the owner of shiny new GLS and TDR tags. Well, he has them on loan, as we intend to come and get them back off him next year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Near the trapping site, waders abound. Oystercatchers are everywhere, but here, we get to see our first golden plover chicks. The ringers are keen to slap metal on them too, so after a brief search we find one chick, which is swiftly returned to its hiding place sporting a new ring. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As if that wasn't enough, our volunteers manage to catch up with the bearded seal (having missed it yesterday) and then find a red-necked phalarope in what can only be described as 'suitable habitat'. The day potentially ends even better for me as I get poor flyover views of what could only have been an adult long-tailed skua heading north over the Weisdale area. It's really frustrating that no-one else managed to get onto it, but that's birding, I guess. It'll be my turn to miss something next. As long as it's not a taggable red-throated diver....

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June 8 2018

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A frustrating day, with trapping attempted at three sites. We start well, with  simple catch but then it goes downhill from there, with an embarrassing fail, and then a long walk in to a site that had  been predated. Apart from the initial catch, the only saving grace of the day is this red-backed shrike, which flew past the car as we drove out of Cunningsburgh. Any day with a shrike is a good day really...

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June 10 2018

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After a disappointing day the day before, with no catches, we needed a good one today! Well we must have been doing something right as by the end of the day we had three newly tagged birds under our belts. What makes this even better is that we caught birds with both the nets and the nest trap, and the netting went especially smoothly. Three birds today puts us right back on schedule to have 15 birds tagged by the end of the field season (15 in Shetland - plenty more in other places). Fingers crossed this is a slight change in our fortunes... 

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The diver net - an irreplaceable adapted shelf of wader netting that has pulled hundreds of Shetland red-throats out of the water over 40 years. 

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And finally, a wee look at what makes these birds so good through the water (and probably contributes to them being so bad over land...) The legs are perfectly hydrodynamic - narrow, tapering towards the rear, but sufficiently wide to be muscular enough to drive those big feet through the water. The leg shape is so different that the metal (BTO) rings we attach have to be straightened out of the round shape they are made in, and then reshaped into elipses. 

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June 12 2018

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Yet another frustrating day where we are scuppered by both mechanical problems (this time it's Georges car that's playing up - although Logan's didn't help when he parked up in Lerwick and we had to get help pushing it out of the car park!) and another failure to trap. So, we're still stuck on 6 birds, but fortunately the Orkney team finally get a run of luck and bag 3 birds, so now Scotland has reached double figures. 

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While waiting for George and his car, we head down to the south Mainland to do a bit of birding. Then news of a 'snow goose' at Grutness comes in (found by Ladyboy Chris Rodger) and as it's a tick for Logan we go and have a look. It displays all the characteristics of a wild snow goose by plodding around in a field less than 15 yards from those who have felt obliged to come and look at it.

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June 15 2018

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A bit of a catchup from the last few days where we've had some failures, a small amount of successes, (including 2 today that brings our total up to 9 birds), and some horrendous weather. During the bad weather I tried a bit of seawatching and very quickly learned why nobody does seawatching in Shetland! We also learn of a diver trapped by the Orkney crew that was originally ringed in Shetland by Dave, something like 20 years ago - this bird is a female, which fits neatly in with the pattern of female birds dispersing further from their natal sites than males, and while on a diver theme, we find a new nest on a nice accessible loch, but not in a position where we can fire the nest trap on it!

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Aside from divers, we have the great pleasure of finding (i.e. very nearly standing on...) a snipe nest, with chicks that could rival golden plovers for cuteness. Some of the chicks were still damp (on a dry day) so must have hatched very recently - even the largest and driest still had a very obvious egg tooth.

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The Sandgarth garden continues to deliver as well. The cranefly that has been seen a couple of times by Gus and myself has been confirmed as Dolichopeza albipes, or white-footed ghost (photo below taken by Gus Routledge) - a first for Shetland (apart from a handful of records from Fair Isle). Also, we have willow warbler breeding in the garden, which has only been confirmed a handful of times in Shetland before. Hopefully they can avoid the house cat...

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June 16 2018

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Another pretty average day in the field - we catch one bird but then fail at another site, leaving us on 10 birds tagged in total. We feel pretty happy with the situation - 6 tags to go, 6 days left, but then news comes in of a Herculean effort from the Orkney crew, who tagged 6 birds in a day and finish off on 14! We can't compete with that with our team of 'volunteer ringers' but hats off to them for what must have been a very long day!

 

Things are slightly more interesting in the garden. The willow warblers are very active and vocal at the moment and hopefully it won't be too long before we see some young birds. While looking for them in the morning I bumped into a pied flycatcher in the garden, and while out in the evening trying to record the curlews singing, I had two crossbills. However, the biggest surprise in the garden, and 'bird of the day' went to this guy who was loafing around in the pond...

 

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I did manage to get passable recordings of curlew too. They contribute to a frenzy of wader noise in the evenings around the house, which includes redshanks, snipes, oystercatchers, lapwings, and the odd dunlin too.

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June 20 2018

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We catch our penultimate bird this morning to the stunning backdrop of Eshaness on a sunny day. What makes it even more special is that we use Dave's home made 'walk-in' trap, which makes this bird, as far as we know, the first ever to be trapped using this method anywhere in the world. After a sight hesitation while the bird checked the trap out and worked out how to get in, it was soon settling on it's fake egg, not knowing it was pushing the boundaries of diver trapping! Here it is, from great distance and through some heat haze...

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And here it is as it flew away while we were setting the trap.

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Before heading out I spend a little time in the garden and track down the breeding willow warblers (quite easily really, they were making a lot of noise). One of the birds in particular finds my pishing and squeeking quite enticing, and comes in for a closer look, revealing the meal destined for one of the young. It's great to get the picture too, as this confirms the breeding attempt, should it need confirmation.

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June 21 2018

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The last day (for now...). We go back south as it gives us the best chance at a number of sites that are relatively close to one another. Having prepared for a long day laying on the hill under camo netting we decided to have a go at using the net just in case. By now we are a crack team and we have the bird in the net literally within 15 seconds of arriving at the loch. 14 done - I can go home (for now...).

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July 14 2018

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We return! Having spent the best part of a month tagging the birds, it's now time to check sites to see if out tagging activities have had any effect on the breeding productivity of the birds (part of the 'special methods' licencing requirement). In spite of the rain we get out and check a few sites, and along with results from Orkney, the initial feedback suggests we haven't had any adverse effects.

 

Before doing anything related to divers we pop in to see the bearded seal, who is still hanging around in Lerwick, and again she (or he, as our resident pinniped expert thinks...) puts on a fine display. Also worth mentioning was a minke whale seen from the ferry as we approached Lerwick early in the morning.   

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July 15th - 18th 2018

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We spend the week visiting and checking diver sites, looking to see if our activities have had any effect on the birds productivity - and it looks like across all shetland and Orkney sites that we have had no real impact - which is great news for the rest of the study. Of course this means getting great views of loads of diver chicks, which is always nice. It's also a pleasure to catch up with all of the other moorland wildlife while we're up there...

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July  19 2018

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A day off! We make the most of it by heading towards Unst, but only get as far as Yell. In terms of a reason why,  think the pictures speak for themselves. While on Yell we also pop in to see a Rosy starling that turned up the day before. It's good to see one but I was really hoping to find my own... Still - the killer whales made up for it!

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