Tuesday 30 April 2013

Wheatears and Radio Tags - 30th April 2013

This afternoon, Matt and I joined Rachel in our Twite valley to train with the radio tracking receivers for the up and coming field work of my Masters project.

There was quite a lot of standing around waiting for people to get in position and various prolonged moments when we were acclimatising ourselves with the various technologies we will be using during the fieldwork.

As a result, we set up a few spring traps as there were Wheatears everywhere! Almost every 100 metres through the valley, there was pair 'tacking' away. We were able to catch 3 adult male birds and two of these were ringed by me. This is a new species for me in the hand and they're just lovely!

Really excited for the field work as it will be so beneficial for the future of Twite in Wales and the future of my career! It will be very hard work, but nothing in life worth having comes easy.

1 comment:

BagginsTim said...

There have been stacks of Wheatears around Yorkshire this spring, breaking all records for numbers in the York area ... have you had a bumper year there too?

Tim
Timbobaggins Abroad