About the project

We have consulted with the British Trust for Ornithology, who actively encourage the monitoring of Red List species such as the House Sparrow, and this project had been registered with them as a Retrapping Adults for Survival (RAS) scheme, using ringing and colour-ringing birds to enable them to be individually identified by bird ringers, birdwatchers, or members of the public.The birds are captured (under licence) and are fitted with a BTO metal ring on their right leg, and with a colour ring on the left leg. The colour ring has a code (the rings are Black, with White lettering, and the code is 2 digits either numbers or letters) that can be easily read using binoculars. Anybody seeing a House Sparrow with a colour ring can contact us at shetlandsparrows@gmail.com. We need to know the code on the ring, and the date and place you saw it. Many thanks for your help!

Thanks to the support of the following:

Shetland Ringing Group for supplying the metal rings for this project

The Shetland Wildlife Fund for covering the cost of buying the colour rings

Plantiecrub Garden Centre and Shop (www.plantiecrub.co.uk) for supplying bird feeders and wild bird seed

Shetland Walking and Wildlife (www.shetlandwalkingandwildlife.co.uk) for allowing Graham time to put his surveying and bird ringing skills to good use

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Wrong Species?

Well, a nice frosty morning here in Walls. I opened one net in the hope of making a proper start on the House Sparrow project.

There were about 40 spadgers in the garden, under the feeders, but somehow they all managed to completely avoid the net, resulting in a grand total of ZERO birds added to the project database.

7 Starlings did find the net however (perhaps this should have been the Shetland Starling Project?), as well as one female Blackbird (5F - 5 indicating it hatched last calendar year, F being female) so it was a worthwhile exercise regardless of the spadgers not playing.



Male Starling

Also of note in the garden:

1 Robin (a local rarity)
1 Moorhen (another local rarity)
16 Rock Doves (as common here as Woodpigeons are anywhere else)
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2 comments:

  1. Muckle Joannie15 January 2013 at 15:33

    I don't if it is because we have a high wooden fence and some substantial bushes in our garden but we have had a robin in our garden here in Scalloway every winter for several years now.

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  2. Shetland House Sparrow Project16 January 2013 at 02:46

    Hi Muckle Joannie. Thanks for the comment. Yes, there are a few places on Shetland which have wintering Robins. We've got one here in Walls too (as you've read above). Certainly having some shelter in the form of bushes will help, and will also provide food for the bird too. It's unlikely that this is the same bird if you've had it there for a number of years though, but that just means that you're obviously doing something right if you're managing to attract them to your garden! Let me know if it hangs around into the spring. Cheers. Graham.

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