Lundy Warden rings a Jay...

...on the mainland! Lundy Warden Dean Jones, on his way back from a week's holiday with his partner Zoë Barton from their native Northern Ireland, stopped off at the North Devon home of Lundy bird recorders Tim Jones and Tim Davis. Whilst there, regular Lundy visitor and bird ringer Chris Dee put up mist-nets and, amongst several garden species, caught a female Jay and a juvenile Marsh Tit. A very happy Dean, currently training for a general bird-ringing licence, ringed both. 

Dean Jones with a female Jay © Tim Davis

On the subject of ringed birds, more specifically colour-ringed birds, on 27th July, whilst waiting to take part in a Snorkel Safari in the Landing Bay, Tim Davis noticed that one of two Oystercatchers that flew in to land on the rocky intertidal area was wearing colour-rings, a plain yellow ring over a blue ring engraved in white with an alpha-numeric code, sadly unreadable through binoculars at the distance involved. Subsequently it turned out to be the first sighting from Lundy or North Devon of one of 150 Oystercatchers colour-ringed as part of an Exe Estuary Oystercatcher Project.

On 4th February this year, a catch of 190 Oystercatchers took place at Dawlish Warren National Nature Reserve. 150 of them were fitted with colour-rings on the right leg, as in the photo below, with a metal BTO ring on the left leg. If you see one of these birds, on Lundy or elsewhere, please note information on date, time, location (as precisely as possible with a grid reference) and its behaviour (feeding or roosting, in a flock or on its own). Details of sightings should be sent to: exeoystercatchers@gmail.com. 

For more information about the project visit: www.dawlishwarren.co.uk/oystercatchers.html