Myself and Steve made our way over onto Anglesey at Rhoscolyn this morning, where we netted Ian's feeders in his garden. An early start was decided to maximise our catch rate throughout the morning, which ended in a total of 31 birds being caught.

Blue Tit, Great Tit, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Greenfinch, Goldfinch and Collard dove provided us with a rather successfull morning for species variety. Having never had the privelege of a Collard dove in the hand before, once my eyes locked on to a grey bird in the bottom shelf of the net, it was a quick sprint to the garden and the bird was safely in the hand. The reason for this dash was mainly because we haven't yet caught a Collard dove and they are renowned for escaping from mist-nets. A great finish to an interesting morning.

I thought I would take a look back to September 2009 when I first moved into Bangor. This was to study my BSc Environmental Conservation Degree for the next 3 years of my life. Throughout this period, I have been lucky enough to be working regularly with SCAN Wader Ringing Group; which cuts down to {Shropshire, Conwy and Anglesey}. During my 2 years of ringing training, I have taken part in just under 100 cannon-netting sessions, with several of these trips being rather memorable..

So when this year's season begun, I was keen to get out and catch some more.. A weekend's worth of cannon-netting in the months of September, October and November proved very successfull with several high catches and alot of data retrieved. This weekend was our last session of 2010 and what a great end to a year!

Saturday 4th December - Set 2 nets at Rhos Point/Colwyn Bay. Made a catch of circa. 50 Turnstone, 50 Redshank, 1 Knot and 1 Rock pipit.

Sunday 5th December - Set 2 nets in Bangor Harbour/Porth Penrhyn. Made a catch of circa. 300 Dunlin, 70 Oystercatcher, 15 Redshank, 1 Curlew.

During Saturday afternoon at the Birdfair, myself and Ciaran headed off back to Preston in search of the Juvenile Iceland Gull that had been at Preston Docks for the past few days.. Kane very kindly dropped us off at Rufford Station and with an hour's wait there, we were soon on our way.... On arrival in Preston we stopped off to have another look at the 100+ strong flock of Waxwings on Euston Street.. Both the Waxwing pictures were digiscoped on Saturday 13th, when I visited the flock with Mr M Bridge..

Moving off, I met up with good friend John Tubb again and the 3 of us headed off towards the docks.. Ciaran soon spotted the Iceland Gull sat amongst some Juvenile Herring gulls on one of the rafts whilst I was chatting to John. Nice one Ciaran! The bird showed really well throughout our time there, flying around taking bread from the nearby car-park.

The bird sat down for most of the time, but soon stood up and we could admire it's true beauty!

We also managed to see the flock of 20 Waxwings at Preston dock, making our Waxwing total in the region of 120 individual birds! Mega! Iceland Gull was my 269th species for 2010 so thanks Ciaran.. A quick snack in Macdonald's and we headed back into Preston Town Centre.. A short train journey back to Ormskirk and a nice long evening relaxing on the couch watching TV! Nicely done!

For the past 2 years, I have been unable to attend the North-West Birdwatching Festival at WWT Martin Mere, due to other commitments, so this year I decided to go along and spend both days at the fair..

I had forgotten just how busy this birdfair can get and with over 5,000 visitors throughout the weekend, the reserve became somewhat too crowded for me! Mooching around the various stands on show was the main part of my weekend, as well as buying a DVD on 'Birding in Morrocco' ready for April 2011, chatting to folk who I hadn't seen for quite some time, watching guest speakers give some great talks including 'The Biggest Twitch' by Alan Davies and Ruth Miller.. See http://thebiggesttwitch.com/

It was soon time to leave the warmth of the visitor centre and head out to do some birding.. Meeting up with Dave and Estelle Walsh, we did a bit of Whooper Swan ring-reading in Swanlink and Raines Hide, but no sign of our Red Darvic'd cygnet that resides somewhere on the reserve and unfortunately I couldn't spot him/her throughout the whole weekend which was a shame! Maybe some time during the winter..

A ringed Coot caught my attention outside Swanlink - GC247-. The bird then jumped into the water just before I could read the last letter, however; this bird was ringed by the WWT at Martin Mere during one of their swan catches, so not one of Kane's Coot's unfortunately..

A colour-ringed Black-Tailed Godwit proved interesting, but after an hour of watching it, the bird never moved from it's position - standing on 1 leg for a whole hour must be tough?!

Managing to squeeze a space in Swanlink for the swan feed, was good fun as always and a bit more ring-reading was done but still no sign of the Icelandic Cygnet! Here is a video of the swan feed taking place.. If you have never been to Martin Mere, please do take time for a visit as it is a wonderful place for birds and especially at this time of year when the Whooper Swans and Pink-Footed Geese put are present in large numbers.. http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit-us/martin-mere

Catching that Adult Male Sparrowhawk last Sunday, really did make me think about a few things and one particular matter that sprung to mind was that of twitching! I was curious as to what was going to be my next twitch. All too soon, it happened...

Mr Hinchcliffe had tempted me into going over to Morpeth in Northumberland for an Adult Squacco heron and then on for a Desert Wheatear at Seahouses near Berwick-Upon-Tweed.. These would have been British ticks and very welcome yearticks for the both of us, but what was to happen in the following hours truely was a shock and didn't take time to hit home!

Leaving Bangor early on Wednesday 17th November, it wasn't long until we had our first text to tell us the status on the heron. To our dismay, the Adult Squacco Heron had unfortunately died overnight due to a heavy frost; at this point, we were sat at Newcastle station! You can imagine the atmosphere when we recieved this message and then to top it all off, the Desert Wheatear wasn't seen all day! Things got drastic after recieving those 2 messages, so we decided to order 1 each of these to calm the nerves...

I have to refer back to the title now and ask who the hell did invent twitching?! Why the hell do I travel all those miles to find out the bird has died?! God knows??? I mean my bins or scope didn't even see daylight that day - just stuck in the rucksack!

Twitching is what it is at the end of day, you have your good days and then you have your bad days, that's how it goes I'm afraid... Arriving back into Bangor late that evening, we could reflect on our days journey and had time to think of our career change! Metal-detecting maybe?? I have to say though, it's the thrill of the chase, if it was easy it would be boring!

The picture of myself and the picture of Zac, show just how thrilled we were to recieve those 2 messages... Anyone who walked in our way or annoyed us that day got what was coming to them..

Redwing, a new species to be ringed whilst training under Steve, we managed to catch 2 birds. A Juvenile and an Adult bird.

A line of 5 60ft nets was sufficient enough for the catch of about 40 birds during the morning. The original plan was to try and catch a feeding flock of around 150 Chaffinch, but we only managed to catch 10 birds which was pretty good, considering the flock wasn't playing ball.. Trying to twinkle a Chaffinch flock is bluddy hard work!

Photgraphed by Kane Brides

We only managed to catch the one bird on Sunday 7th November, despite much effort. Hopefully we would try again sometime during the week? Kane and Craig then departed for home after a hugely successfull weekend's ringing!

The opportunity arose the next day, as I had the whole day off so I went down to where the Waxwings were the day before, sure enough...they were still here feeding rapidly! Kelvin arrived around 11am, nets set in slightly different positions this time, resulting in 2 birds being caught and ringed. This time, I was able to ring one myself!! I have to say, they are the best birds I have ever been lucky enough to ring!! Amazingly, I was able to flick net the 2nd bird of the morning. Do excuse the expression on my face, but come on..

Throughout the week, the flock varied in numbers, ranging from 20 birds to a rather impressive flock of 83 birds!

I am really hoping that these birds stick around for a little longer so we can have another opportunity to catch some more!! I will keep you posted!

Almost forgot to mention a Polish-ringed Black-headed gull that myself, Kane and Craig managed to read after we had finished at Scan on the Saturday afternoon.. I will update later on during the week on details of where the birds was ringed.

Arriving back from the Cairngorms late on Tuesday night, the thought of having a rest the next morning was what I was really looking forward to, but as usual, the next morning I was straiight back on the train and back to Bangor to get my leaflet finished and completed before the weekend's activities begun!

2 Ptarmigan {8am on Cairgorm summit in 90mph winds!!}

Can you spot them?

Eclipse Drake King Eider at Burghead/Moray

15 Black Grouse, 2 Red Grouse, 10 Brambling, 3 Hooded Crow, 70+ Long-tailed Duck, 20+ Velvet scoter as well as other Scottish specialitiy species such as Crested Tit!

We made a few seriously crazy decisions during the trip, including a dawn walk upto the Cairngorm Summit at 8am in 70-90mph winds!! This is no joke either, eyes dripping with liquid, coats rattling in the wind and at times it was a struggle just to walk the wind was that strong! The view down towards the car-park after seeing 2 Ptarmigan..

The large Scottish breakfasts were more than enough to fill me up for a full days birding, as well as the biggest bowl of porridge imaginable!

Myself and Zac in Abernethy Forest at Forest Lodge at 5am, in search of the elusive Capercaillie. Spending the whole day searching for this elusive creature, our efforts were not rewarded. I had in 2009, spent 2 weeks Residential volunteering here during the summer and was involved in Capercaillie surveying throughout the 2 weeks. Luckily, I managed to see a grand total of 68 Capercaillies, which includes, Females, Males and Fledged chicks. The purpose of this fieldwork was brood counting to see how much of a successfull year they had in raising and fledging chicks. I am proud to say that Capercaillie in 2009 had a pretty damn good year..

Heading home on the 2nd November, we found several fields of {new-in} Whooper swans, but despite thorough searching, I could reveal no red darvic'd birds from our trip to Iceland this year. A few yellow darvic'd birds were present but all were too far away to read..

All in all, a fantastic trip and worth every second. Huge thanks to Zac's mum and dad for inviting me along and for doing all the driving throughout the few days. I hope you enjoyed the Whisky and Wine!! Cheers for now

To see Zac's report of our trip, check out http://zacswildlifeblog.blogspot.com/.

Reports of Waxwings from all over the UK were reaching me all day on Thursday 28th October.. So when I recieved a text off Zac saying he had just had a flock of around 20 Waxwings from his window...and as he lives literally a minute walk from my flat at university.. I was off!! Having the day off anyway, I finished a section of my leaflet and headed out into Bangor in search of these scandinavian beatuies!!

Shortly after, we relocated them, 40 infact in the trees surrounding Ffriddoed site where I am based in Bangor.. Zac headed off to finish off some work and so I phoned Alex Jones as I knew he hadn't seen any yet this year and he shortly arrived 5 minutes later, unfortunately with no waxwings in sight. We jumped in his car and had a quick drive around Bangor and managed to find a flock of 5 Waxwings!! Mega!

Later on in the day, we had a flock of around 60 birds by the Maes Glas Sports Centre briefly, before they headed off to roost!

A superb end to the week and as always, a sheer pleasure to see Waxwings!

Check out:-

Alex's blog @ http://birdingnorthwales.blogspot.com/
Zac's blog @ http://zacswildlifeblog.blogspot.com/ for their accounts of these little beauties!!!

This particluar Glossy Ibis that myself and Zac finally managed to connect with, must have caused the most grief for us both, this year! After 2 failed attempts, the first we managed to walk further than we needed to, the 2nd attempt we walked in the right direction this time.. More importantly, the night of our 2nd failed attempt, Zac totted up the miles we had walked and it came to a ridiculous 26.2 miles!!! What were we thinking, it was only a yeartick??


The Glossy Ibis featured wears a colour-ring and was originally ringed in Spain, first turning up on the Otter Estuary in Devon and later on Anglesey - great movement!