Ringing process

That is how I look like when ringing "my" beloved Oystercatchers. The bird that was caught is placed in a very handy plastic tube (designed by the Dutch I acknowledge!), which makes it easy to weigh it, to put both the steel life-long and the plastic ring(s), and to measure all what has to be measured, except that the wing length is the last measurement before the release.

What cannot be clear from this photo, is that I am always talking quietly to the bird, murmuring nicely that it is cute, that there is no harm, that the nest is also safe, and that the rings will make it even more beautiful. Whether the talking or anything else helps, likely the other things than talking, but some Oystercatchers go back into the same trap within7 to 8 minutes after release! Sure then they have just to be released again with a story that they only need to be in the trap once in 5-7 years or even more, and that all the other times we see each other at good distance.

OK for them - certainly better and more safe, - and I can read the rings in the telescope.

Things start to develop!

Today got the print-run of our questionnaire - with the joint (from the Kandalaksha reserve and from myself) appeal to the local people living along the White Sea coast - to help with counts and other simple data-gathering on Oystercatcher, Common Crane, Feral Pigeon and House Sparrow. The latter three were added upon request from the nature reserve staff. I even objected at first - seems it could distract attention from "my" beloved Oystercatcher as the main 2008 target - but then understood additional positive reasons to have these three extra species also in. If a person replies from a village telling about Cranes and Sparrows, but giving zero numbers for Oystercatchers - there is a fair chance that Oystercatchers are indeed not there.
Thus tonight and tomorrow practice the direct mailing ;-) for birds and nature. Besides mailed leaflets also a number of local newspapers promised help to publicize the questionnaire - and for them extra stories are needed as well. And on Oystercatchers I can talk and write for hours - so that people share the great care and all other feelings towards these birds!
Meanwhile the questionnaire in Russian in pdf version can also be downloaded - this is mainly for tourist groups who are also most welcome to help. Link valid till end of June, to be prolonged later.
As some of you might know - we do not have a practice of volunteer/students birdwatching, neither we have a network of bird-friendly people along the White Sea coasts. Therefore I am really really curious what we get from this first ever try to get bird data from local rural White Sea people.

The first breeding Oystercatchers have arrived and start nesting

I am not yet at the White Sea myself, I am still preparing the questionnaires and other work that has to go in parallel, but as the staff of Kandalaksha Nature Reserve have already arrived at the islands they sent the news on the weather and late spring conditions, and also wrote that "the birds are already on the roof". This is a nice remark on the kind of "Adopted Family" of Oystercatchers that moved since 1998 when they bred nearby the houses to the roof of the research staff building. The reason is obvious - elsewhere on the main island there is almost total predation by Red Fox and Hooded Crow, and at the roof and in viccinity to humans - they are safe and already for at least four latest years manage to raise chicks successfully. In fact this year I hope to find at the islands some of their grown-up offsprings, which are individually ringed.
Research is research, but also for year I cannot get permit from the inhabitants of the house to set a trap and catch the breeding birds for individual ringing. Therefore everybody says "ours have arrived", and I am noting that "ours is not in fact confirmed".
Their neighbours, who were breeding something like 30 meters distance from the house, were not successful for years; last year at least I managed to ring one of the two birds. Hope this year also the pair with individually marked partner will arrive and be more practical in selecting the nesting place safer and closer to people.

On the individual ringing and rings

Certainly whatever bird is ringed by a scientist it must have obligatory a small metal ring, preferably life-lasting steel nowadays, that is reported be the ringer to the national Ringing Center and also shall be reported whenever a bird is re-captured or found dead. But these metal rings with small numbers are extremely hard if not impossible to be read from the distance. Therefore about forty-fifty years ago some smart ringers started to use additional light-weight colour plastic rings, and at least in the latest twenty years such plastic rings for rather large birds, such as Oystercatcher and larger, are numbered and coded individually. To avoid confusion between ringers, countries and colour-marking schemes there is also international coordination (for wader done in the British Trust for Ornithology). Since 2002, when a good set of individually numbered rings was made for the White Sea Oystercatchers with the Dutch KNIP funds, there are three types of colour rings legally used for individual colour-ringing of the White Sea Oystercatchers. On the first drawing all the schemes are shown in a symbolic way, and the photo below shows the rings themselves.
For some practical reasons in the last years I prefer to use the rings that are made in Canada (orange and yellow in the right or the blue below), they are thicker and proved to be more durable though there is yet little statistics to say it 100%.

The greatest advantage of these colour rings is that the individual code can be read at a distance. The latter in fact depends on the telescope and bins that are used; in the former times I sometimes needed 40 minutes to 1>5 hour to read a code with the x45 telescope, but currently with the good Zwarovski x60 it is really easy.

What I did not manage since last year is the close-up photography – so the individual birds cannot be “adopted” with the photo. And at the distance the rings look just like on the two photos below. But this year I hope to catch up on the “ID portraits” as well, so that the stories will be linked to well-seen numbers on the Oystercatcher legs on the photo.

Whenever you see an Oystercatcher or any other bird with such colour rings – please try to "read the rings" and note as much as possible (species, location and colour of rings and numbers/letters, location of metal ring etc.) – and please report it to the Ringing Center or similar agency in your country, usually it is 1 per country. Who knows, may be you have seen “my” White Sea Oystercatchers already not yet knowing it!

White Sea - the Map and what we want

Oystercatchers - the birds that I love - inhabit all the White Sea coasts, it is know as the most North-Eastern population. Thus the first story should not be on the birds, but primarily on their breeding area, the White Sea itself. Besides I will also tell you what we planned for those 90 days when they spend time breeding (hopefully successfully) or just going around at their native grounds.
I have planned three major activities. One is the basis for success - resightings and additional individual ringing of individually colour-marked birds. Bird № 21 BLUE born at the White Sea island and since 2003 "going around with the Dutch" - believe me you will love the full story! Also we plan to distribute a questionnaire to the coastal communities - so that public can reply with simple information on bird numbers in their areas. The best areas will then be checked by experts.
Looking at the map you see three colours - red, stupid-pink and green. In circles are red - activities will be the most steady, and besides public involvement experts will look for the CR-Oystercatchers and birds in general; here the bird counts are made professionally by a number of professional ornithologists in nature reserves and biological stations. Also here in the most NW red circle - all so far individulally ringed "local and others welcome" Oystercatchers were observed in Kandalaksha State Nature Reserve and nearby. Green are the areas for which we hope to get good replies from local people (to our questionnaires) and also from tourists visiting the area (from another type of questionnaires). Pinks is in between. At the moment I can be honest - I have no idea at all if it is worthwhile or not to explore it (the "pink area") specifically for Oystercatchers. We will find out within the first two weeks of June and act accordingly.

These are the plans. The former (1960s) population estimate for Oystercatchers at the White Sea was 1200 breeding pairs. What I am most curious - is what we get from the next-week questionnaires.