White wonderland

As you may guess, we receive quite a lot of reports in the Demography team regarding swans. So far this month, we've had 26 reports of Mute Swans, 10 of those were reported alive and 9 were ring-read sightings, one  was caught in netting and released.


Of the 16 swans that were reported dead, the stated cause of death was: hit by a car; flew into overhead wires; sick; or oiled. We have also received a remarkable report of one swan that lived for 20 years and we got its whole life history (it was a long report), who it was paired with and what happened to them. This bird managed to raise quite a few cygnets in its time, and even survived being shot in the head twice, but unfortunately it didn't survive the third shooting.


Last year we received a lot of reports regarding the other white bird, the Barn Owl, but this year we have had relatively few. Of the 12 reports received so far this month, seven of them had been found dead (one with its head down a rabbit burrow) and four were hit by vehicles. The last one was reported by a bird of prey centre who report that they are increasingly receiving Barn Owls which have been killed by Buzzards. I'm not sure how common this is or if it is just restricted to the Fife area of Scotland. We'll have to keep an eye on this.

Thanks to Edmund Fellowes for the Mute Swan picture and Neil Calbrade for the Barn Owl.

Tystie gets a Bus Pass

Although the summer days are long gone and we have just put the clocks back to the winter time, we have recently received news from Dr J G Greenwood (BTO ringer) about a Tystie (Black Guillemot) which was ringed by him in Northern Ireland and has broken the longevity record for the species.

The Black Guillemot wearing the ring EP35353 hatched on 27 June 1988 and was ringed nine days later in Bangor Marina, Co Down, Northern Ireland, by Dr J Greenwood.

Only 23 years and 22 days after ringing this bird was spotted by the ringer himself in the same place. Although this is not a grand old age for a seabird in general, in Black Guillemot years EP35353 is probably eligible for a bus pass by now.

Dr Julian Greenwood has been studying the Black Guillemots and their responses to the rise in the temperature of the sea in Bangor Marina for 25 years, his article in British Wildlife 2010 is a great read about the success of the joined forces of an ornithologist and the construction company on the Bangor Marina. It is thanks to Dr Greenwood's dedication that there are now more than 30 pairs of Black Guillemots using artificial nesting chambers in the marina.

Previously, the oldest Tystie was 22 years and 11 months old and lived on Fair Isle, Shetland, all its life... as far as we know.

Thanks to Edmund Fellowes for the photo.