Copeland Island Visited Part 3

In the last 2 post I have been telling you about bird ringing and showing you some of the birds that they ringed on Lighthouse Island.   So today we will continue with that theme.  I finished yesterday with the 'loo with the view' and when I was returning from there, I noticed high up on the cliff a male and female Eider. 

Below are some of the Eiders (females) with their chicks. 

Eiders do breed on the Island and they make their nests from plucking the eider down from their own feathers and when the female site on the nest she is so camoyflaged that you might walk right pass her without even noticing.  However Stefan Greif did manage to photo one and these are his photos below. 

  

These first 2 photos were taken by Stefan of Oystercatchers. 

 

These other 2 are my photos.  Oystercatchers do breed on the island although not in great numbers.

There was a window that looked out from the kitchen and when you volunteered to do the dishes, you always saw Oystercatchers on this wall below.  Also what you were looking out there was a pond where Water Rail frequented and everyone but me had seen one so the group said I had better always do the dishes and then I might see one!!!!   Although I did a lot of dishes I did not see the Water Rail from the sink but had the best view ever as you will see in this post.

As we walked round the island checking frequently on the various traps I photographed more flowers and these are some below.  Notice how close these meadows were to the house on the right.

                                                                          Bluebells Bounty

Red Campion 

                                                            Close up of Red Campion flower

The only butterflies I saw were small white but Stefan managed to photograph this Small Copper butterfly below.

Birds are caught for ringing in a variety of ways.  I have already told you about Mist Nets, however about 20% of birds are ringed as chicks in the nest and will be done later on in the season; this is valuable because their precise age and origin are then known.  Yesterday I had shown you some birds that were caught in mist nets, however others were caught funnel traps.  These have a narrow entrance into which birds may be lured or driven and the entrance typically leads to larger holding pen.   Funnel traps can be very large and a particularly well-known large scale form was devised in the German bird observatory at Heligoland and are termed as a Heligoland trap.  We have 4 of these traps on the island and this is one of them below.

As I have explained, all traps are checked very often and below is Shane and Richard doing a round and notice that Shane has got a bird in the bag he is holding.  I wonder what it is? 

Wow!  A Sparrowhawk  These 3 photos below are mine and I was so disappointed with them as when I saw them, I had a smudge on my lens so they could have been much better, however the next 3 after mine are Stefan's photos and they are much better.  Enjoy.

So from something large to a small female Chaffinch below.  I could not get over when all the birds were in hand, just how small they were instead of what I had imagined.  I suppose I am usually looking though binoculars or telescopes and they appear larger then.

This is another type of trap below and was used to try and catch a Pied Wagtail.  A live maggots was threaded through a piece of wire and the trap set.  We never caught one however we did catch a Water Rail.  This was a wonderful experience to see one so close and it was so gentle, unlike the Gulls that would have launched their huge beak into you.  You will see the Gulls tomorrow.

As I told you, washing dishes did not let me see the Water Rail, but Stefan caught one in a trap he had set and he was delighted.  Everyone came to see this beautiful little bird.  Needless to say, I was  very thrilled.

Below is the spread out wings of the Water Rail and this is one of the way they can age a bird. 

After they had finished ringing and photos, Ron took the bird so that Stefan and I could photograph it as he released it onto the grass where it lived.  Below, is the shot that Stefan got and I decided to take a video of the event and I will leave you with that today.

 

If there is a black space below, click it and thevideo will appear.

 

Well I am sure some of you are wondering why I added this video into my post, well as it gives me a laugh every time I see/hear it, I hope someone else has a laugh from it also.  It is good to be able to laugh as oneself!!

Thank you for visiting today and tune in tomorrow to see the next installent!