Seabirds, swallows and sunshine

Wow! Where does three weeks go!
Had an amazing holiday with the dive club down in Skomer - perfect weather, calm sea, wonderful people and great wildlife. I got to do five dives, see my first wreck, some lovely fishes and ring storm petrels and manx shearwater overnight on Skomer - something I've always wanted to do.

On return I ringed some baby swallows at a stable and took part in the annual Canada goose ringing at Chew Valley Lake. I also reported on the translocation of young cirl buntings by the RSPB from Devon to Cornwall - soon to appear on the BBC Radio 4's Savings Species.

Meanwhile, my work with the Bristol Dinosaur Project is going well - I've successfully visited two schools now trying out some ideas and have been getting to grips with the website and HTML coding today. I just can't do the coding so have resorted to using Dreamweaver - I'm too much of a visual learner to do without it!

Have been enjoying watching parties of swifts screaming over Clifton in the past few days. On the weekend  while ringing on the Severn Estuary I saw streams of swifts moving through south - no doubt birds all ready on the move. It only seems like yesterday they were arriving.


Me with an manx shearwater (left) and a baby swallow (right)

Scuba diving at Porthkerris

It's been a busy few weeks - two weeks ago I was away for four days with the University of Bristol Underwater Club. We went down to Porthkerris on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall to get our scuba diving skills ticked off and to enjoy some underwater diving. It was an amazing four days both with regards diving and socially with everyone from the club. I managed to get to down to 14.4 metres and saw everything from a conger eel to crabs, starfish and small corals. On one boat dive we went down to a sandy bottom and saw lots of hermit crabs, edible crabs, two thornback rays and collected a number of scallops to eat later. The weather changed by the hour and birds varied from gannets close to shore to fulmars whipping past the cliff edges. Stonechats sang in the bushes above and while getting one of the boats on to the sea a black redstart flew across the shingle.

Since then it's been busy at work, although this Easter weekend was a great opportunity for a well earned break. Did a little bird ringing on Good Friday seeing my first swallows of the year down by the Severn Estuary and ringed a chiffchaff, a willow warbler, a male reed bunting and a wren. This was followed by a really lovely friend's wedding on Saturday and a break at home on the Sunday and Monday!

Just watching some chiffchaffs or willow warblers, possibly the latter, in the sycamore tree outside my flat window before I get ready for work. They are busily gleaning insects from the trees which is just beginning to burst its buds.

Phew!! A busy few weeks and culminating in me being ill in bed for past two days! Still feeling much better now. Last week I was tour leading for Naturetrek. With Charles Martin as my co-leader, we spent two wonderful days with 16 clients exploring the Somerset Levels. Despite overcast and rainy weather we saw all the likely suspects (Lapwings, Wigeon, Shovelers...) in good numbers and had a few scarcer birds including Whooper and Bewick's Swans, Long-tailed Duck and a Great White Egret. The Starlings performed well too - swirling in their masses some distance away from Shapwick where we were expecting them; however they suddenly changed direction and flew straight overhead towards Ham Wall. An awesome experience - just the pattering sounds of their wings could be heard as they passed over.

On Saturday I spent the day doing some bird ID tutoring - we visited Marshfield in the morning catching up with Yellowhammers and Corn Buntings; in the afternoon Slimbridge WWT gave good views of Bewick's Swans and many other waterfowl and wading birds!

Sunday was then a fun day out with the University of Bristol SCUBA diving club - we ventured down to the south coast. The first two sites were too murky so we finished off in the brackish water between Weymouth and Portland - I managed to tick off a few skills and see some anemones, crabs and mud!! The nearby pub was a warming reward after before heading back to Bristol.

Today was the launch of the Bristol House Sparrow Project - check out http://www.wildsparrows.org.uk/ where you can report any House Sparrows you see and help us help Bristol's House Sparrows! We launched the project with St Mary Redcliffe Primary School in Victoria Park, south Bristol.