Eagles

A great day out on Canna yesterday. Back up onto the central ridge for some eagle photography.

Good views of both White-tailed and Goldies.

White-tailed Eagle

More pictures to follow!

Canna House Garden ringing

A bit of garden ringing before work this morning.

Best bird was a possible control Swallow - a female with a brood patch, so nesting somewhere near by, but at the moment I'm not sure if she was ringed on Canna, or possible on one of the other nearby islands (Rum, Eigg, or Muck). Ring number X955972.

Totals for the hour's ringing were:

Swallow 1 (1)
Robin 1
Blackbird 1
Whitethroat 1
Willow Warbler 3
Chaffinch 4
Greenfinch 1
Goldfinch 1

I also found out just now that three Greenfinches I've caught here in the last few days were originally ringed on the island of Rum.

Seabirds hatching

A great day on Sanday today.

Confirmed breeding of 6 pairs of Bonxies (Great Skuas) on Sanday, with another pair I haven't checked out yet on Canna.

Adult Bonxie

Newly hatched Bonxie chick

Also, found another 4 nests of Herring Gull, 2 with young chicks, plus 2 more nests of Great Black-backed Gulls, both with 3 chicks each. The adults of the 2nd pair were particularly keen to escort me off the premises!

Great Black-backed Gull with three chicks

Mum telling me to sod off!

This Puffin has obviously had better days!

Puffin remains

Other seabirds are faring well though...

Fulmar

Kittiwake, one of many nesting on Sanday

Guillemots on Sanday, including a few 'bridled' individuals

Razorbill on Dun Mor on Sanday

And nice to see a good mix of wild flowers out now, including Mountain Everlasting, Bog Asphodel, Butterwort, Milkwort, Sea Campion, and Northern Marsh Orchid

Sea Campion

A really great day. Of course, it all started with an hour's bird ringing in my own garden. 3 Linnet, 1 lovely male Twite, and a juvenile Greenfinch were caught, all new birds.

Male Twite

Oystercatchers

I got started on ringing a few of the Oystercatcher chicks that are out and about now on Canna.

I have found 8 Oystercatcher nests over the last week or so, and have been monitoring them for the BTO. The only problem is timing their hatching, as like all waders, they do leave the nest very early. This isn't a problem from a ringing point of view, as with a bit of patience and good luck, you can find downy, flightless chicks that can be ringed once they've left the nest, but from a productivity point of view it would be good to see how many eggs actually hatch, and what the survival rate of those chicks is.

With only 339 pulli (chicks) ringed in the whole of the country last year, I hope to be able to increase our knowledge of these birds by making a study of the Canna breeding population. And as the oldest ever recorded Oystercatcher reached an impressive 40 years old, a huge amount of useful data can be generated from ringing these birds.