So feeders were filled first thing this morning, and the House Sparrows and Starlings were left to fatten up for the long Shetland night ahead.
Yesterday was a lot calmer, and the sun shone for brief periods during the day, letting me nip out into the garden to take a few photos of the birds.
The light was truly stunning, with dark clouds behind, but lovely, low, warming sunshine highlighting the colours and patterns on both male and female House Sparrows.
I'm hoping to hear back from the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) about my proposed colour-ringing project soon after the New Year (their office opens again on January 2nd). If I'm successful in my application, I'll be starting in earnest with trapping and ringing in the Walls area straight away.
When a bird is caught (which can only be done under special licence, please remember), a metal ring is fitted to its right leg, and a colour ring will be fitted to its left (if the BTO say, 'Yes'!). The metal ring has a unique code, so that that bird can be individually identified by any bird ringer who catches the bird alive, or any member of the public who finds it dead in the future. The metal ring also has the address of the BTO on it, so that if a non-ringer should find it they know who to contact. The BTO keep the database of all birds ringed in the UK (and are also responsible for licencing bird ringers). The idea behind colour ringing is that the ring also has a colour code, and sometimes an alpha-numerical code too (which mine will have - they'll be black rings with yellow lettering), and these are easy to see and read in the field, so that birdwatchers, and even non-birdie people, will be able to see them and read the code. If people report their sightings to either myself (at shetlandsparrows@gmail.com) or the BTO, then a lot more useful data can be gathered than just by metal-ringing alone (which relies on the bird being caught again in the future, either alive or dead).
So, hopefully, the colour-ringing application will be passed. However, if it isn't, the project will still go ahead, but will rely only on birds trapped.
And don't worry. If you're concerned about bird ringing, the whole process only takes a few minutes before they are released. Wearing a bird ring for a bird is about the equivalent of you or I wearing a wrist watch - if it made a difference to the birds at all it wouldn't teach us anything about the normal behaviour of the birds we are studying!
If you are interested in seeing bird ringing in Shetland first hand, please do not hesitate to contact me, or if you live elsewhere and are interested in training to be a bird ringer, contact the BTO via their website at www.bto.org
