And Now the Other One...

The second bird I referred to in yesterday's blog was S6WR, an adult ringed at Greyabbey, on the eastern shore of Strangford Lough on 24 October, as part of a catch of 7 birds.

At Greyabbey, inter-tidal is particularly difficult, as we are depending on the tide flooding up to a HW spit, and any catch involves a mad tidal dash by the team across to the net in waders! The birds can be very fickle from day to day, illustrated by one of my recce (as usual, VERY poor quality!!) shots on a non-attempt day, which makes one wonder how we can catch only 7 geese!! C'est la vie!! And we always catch less than we hope for there!!

So, having set the scene, unlike the bird yesterday, which went south, this bird headed east and north, to the Solway Firth, Wigton Bay in SW Scotland, to be more precise, where it was picked up by Derek Farr, and reported in to us.

So, again, a lot of effort, but it proves that even small catches at this stage of the season can yield very interesting results, as these birds are merely staging on Strangford Lough! As with the "Lone Ranger", we are indebted to canon-netter Stuart Bearhop (the Prof!) from University of Exeter, the rest of the team from there, and those who turned up to help with the catch.