Elderly Shag strengthens our position in Europe!

Jim Lennon from the Shiants Auk Ringing Group writes:

Ringing seabirds can be mucky and challenging work, especially when you’re ducking under a rock to reach a Shag chick, while keeping an eye out for its protective parents (often the croaking male). However, this is soon forgotten when you receive news of one of them nearly 31 years later!

Shag chick 1227282 was one of a brood of three ringed on the Shiants Isles, Western Isles, on 30 June 1985 by Ms Sam Powell, a trainee ringer from South Wales working with the Shiants Auk Ringing Group. A total of 725 pulli from 377 broods was ringed on the Shiants that year.  Most of the subsequent recoveries were of birds that perished within the first 12 months, a few survived for four or five years and an exceptional bird was found dead after nine years.

But 1227282 outlived them all by a country mile.  For the next 30 years following ringing, it most likely spent its life breeding on the Shiants and in the waters of West Scotland, but we’ll never know for sure as it was never heard of again until John Taynton, a RSPB worker on the Shiants, found it freshly dead on 26 April 2016 i.e. a life span of 30 years 302 days.

According to the BTO’s latest longevity list (2014), this makes the Shiants bird the oldest ringed Shag in Britain & Ireland, and also in Europe (see Euring), raising the record by nearly a year.

Note:
The Euring information is not updated as regularly as the BTOs longevity lists because it needs to access all the data from all the Euring ringing schemes and this can take some time.  It currently indicates that a 34 yr old bird from the Shiants is Europe's oldest  Puffin but two just shy of 36 years old and one almost 37 years old, are listed on the BTO longevity records site.

Tough times for sea birds

As you heard in a previous post, we have been receiving large numbers of reports of dead or dying Barn Owls. What we didn't mention is that we are also receiving reports of large numbers of dead seabirds on the east coast of Scotland and northern England but also as far south as East Anglia.

The majority of these birds have been found in the Firth of Forth, Scotland, and this seabird wreck has occurred at a time when these birds should be getting into prime condition for the breeding season, or even nesting now. High winds and 'uncomfortable' sea conditions are thought to be the prime cause, making finding food difficult.

Colour ringed Shag - Sarah Featherstone

The majority of reports of ringed birds have been Shag but have also included a wide variety of species, including Puffin, Razorbill, Guillemot, Kittiwake, Cormorant and even Little Auk. The graphs below show the 10 year average of reports (blue) against the number of reports so far this year.

 

You can clearly see the huge difference between early and late March. The number in early April is slightly less than late March and early indications show that late April will have many fewer reports of dead shags, as long as the trend continues.

 We receive very few recoveries of dead Puffins generally during the winter period but this year in late March we can see evidence of the wreck.

 

Strangely, Guillemots have fared very well, considering the previous two species, with a lower than average report rate. Although there have been large numbers of Guillemots washed up in Cornwall and Devon from a synthetic chemical called polyisobutene. Surprisingly only nine dead and two live Guillemots (which are yet to show in the graph above) have been found ringed out of a minimum estimate of 1500 dead birds.

Unexpected Shag High-dive (USH)

Trying to read ring numbers in the field is usually very tricky but advances in photography has improved things substantially. So far this week I've had reports of a Coal Tit, Lesser Redpoll and a Chaffinch that have had their rings read by photographs.

Birds in the water are very difficult to identify as the distortion from the water causes problems. Philip Smith was photographing a Shag in Dover when the camera was used to identify a bird in the water!


A few digits are visible from the above photo but just not good enough to get the full number. A few more shots later produced the unexpected money shot below. Colour ring Blue USH!


This bird can now be identifed as a shag ringed as a chick this year on the Isle of May, Fife, some 620km from Dover!

Thanks to Philip Smith for letting us know and also being able to show these cracking pictures.

On a very differnet note we have heard from Ed Drewitt who has received a report that Kate Atwell, who is a bird keeper at Bristol Zoo, has seen 16 Mallard ducklings in the half frozen pool by the Gorila enclosure on Tuesday!

Adventures in 'Crocodile Island'

Opening the post late on Friday afternoon rewarded us with a great letter; very well written, sent by a girl from Pudsey in Leeds:

"On the 30th August 2010 me, Issy K, and my twin brother, Joe K, discovered an Island off the coast of Knap, in Loch Caliosport, off the Sounds of Jura in Argyll, Scotland. We don't know what the name of the Island was, but Joe nicknamed it Crocodile Island. We were planning to go to Queens beach, but Daddy couldn't get the boat close enough. Instead, Mummy cleverly spotted an island we had never come across before. Joe named it Crocodile Island because of the shape. After lunch we explored it (we had lunch on the island). I set off first, hurdling over the rocks, sliding down their faces and marveling at the marvelous wildlife. Eventually, Joe caught up with me so we climbed together. I was peering at all the sea creatures when I stumbled across a skeleton of a bird which had a ring with your address on its foot."

What a lovely story! We can reveal that the skeleton found by Issy was that of a Shag, ringed as a chick on Sanda Island by Clyde Ringing Group.

Last year 3583 Shags were ringed in the UK, 84% of these were Scottish birds - 8% were recovered!


Click here Crocodile Island 1391652 for a bigger map

For more information about the number of ringed birds and recoveries click here.

The perfect recovery - Shag TIT

Just occasionally we get the perfect recovery come into the office, with all the details we need. This was the case with this particular report, of 1418041. This colour-ringed Shag was found on the beach at Snook Point and not only did we receive a photo of the ring, but also photos of the colour ring, the bird itself and even the exact place it was found!


It was ringed on 12 June 2009 on the island of Fidra, off the Lothian coast near North Berwick. Oh, and you do wonder if the ringers had a sense of humour...