So the Islay twite project is up and running. Earlier this month we managed to catch and colour ring 87 of the Oa's winter twite flock.
For a number of years, The Oa reserve has attracted a large wintering flock to the specially grown wild bird seed crops. See previous blog for full story https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/community/placestovisit/islay/b/weblog/archive/2017/01.aspx
Twite are a relatively well studied species across the UK, but in danger of being lost as a breeding species across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Numerous colour ringing projects have, and continue to take place across the UK, but with Islay hosting significant numbers and no current work being carried out, it was an obvious gap to try and fill. We aim to catch and colour ring birds over the next few winters, as well as taking non-invasive DNA. This combination will allow researchers to study not only survival, winter movements and breeding origins but also winter recruitment and, potentially, gene flow between population subgroups.
This year, we started feeding the twite as their numbers built in late autumn, to try and get them to become accustomed to some particular areas where we could catch them.
(One of our cows kindly inspecting our catch area for us)
This worked well, with the twite becoming fairly tame and reliable. Using whoosh nets, under license, trained ringers caught small numbers of twite on 3 consecutive days, totalling a respectable 87.
Once caught, the twite were quickly weighed, sexed and aged where possible, measured and fitted with a standard metal ring and with a black 'darvic style' colour ring, engraved with a white two letter/number code.
Once released the twite were quickly back to the bird crop fields and were regularly seen back on the provided seed where they were caught previously.
Crucially now, we are reliant on re-sightings to make the project a success. So please keep your eyes peeled for twite and check them for rings. The numbers and letters are challenging but possible to read with binoculars, or better, a spotting scope. Even without the exact combination, a twite bearing a black ring with white lettering will let us know it is one of our birds. We expect these birds to range up and down the west coast of Scotland, but they could wander as far as South East England and North East Scotland. Over the next few winters we will attempt to catch a good percentage of the flock, so look out for more updates as things progress.
Any sightings can be sent to Jamie Dunning (jamiedunning8@googlemail.com) or David Wood (david.wood@rspb.org.uk)
Thanks go to Jamie, Peter and Mike for giving up their time and expertise, and RSPB, Kowa Optics and the University of Nottingham for their support with this project.