Birding | Photography by Neville

Tag: Birding

Interview with a Ringer

by Neville on Dec.04, 2009, under Birding, Photography, Travel

Surfing the web gives me (and everyone) a chance to learn about new things and meet lots of new people from across the globe. The other day I came across a very interesting blog by Peter Fearon, a Science Teacher from Liverpool, who is also a Ringer. Don’t know what a Ringer is? Well find out more below -

1.) Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Peter Fearon from Liverpool, UK and I am a Science teacher in Secondary Education. Before I became a teacher I worked in Canada for two years setting up and running the Ausable Bird Observatory, splitting my time between education, research and training.

Peter Fearon

2.) How long have you been ringing birds and why do you do it?

I cant remember exactly how old I was when I started ringing, but I do have fantastic memories of being woken up by my father in the middle of the night whilst on holiday in Portugal to ring a Red-necked Nightjar. Before that I remember being able to suprise my father when I asked if the bird in the net was a Sedge Warbler, at our local sewage works, nine months after I saw my last one. At some time after this, I think I started school!

I blame my father for the fact that I am not a professional footballer or astronaut, two of my early ambitions, preferring to ditch football practice to go to the sewage farm and ring birds with him. I had the perfect introduction to ringing, as a child with my father, long summer holidays ringing birds in Portugal and surrounding myself with friends from the ringing community.

As a child, ringing was just something that I enjoyed, it wasn’t until I grew older that I started to appreciate the scientific value of the work that we do. Spending time with experienced ringers such as my father Pete Fearon, Adrian Blackburn and Paulo Tenriero really helped my development and understanding of birds. The bottom line is that I love ringing, I love being outdoors and I believe in the reasons why we ring birds. Most of my friends thing I’m a bit crazy, but at the same time they tell me that they are jealous, when I ask why they tell me that I have a ’cause’ that I believe in, that I am passionate about and they admire that.

Cedar Waxwing

3.) How many species of birds have you ringed?

I couldn’t tell you precisely how many birds I have ringed, or an accurate total number of species because I am not someone who is driven by personally ringing as many species as possible, although seeing new species and the challenges of identification and ageing/sexing them are really exciting. In North America I would estimate I have ringed over 110 different species and about 130 in Europe.

Northern Parula

4.) How does ringing help the birds and us in understanding them better?

Ringing birds can allow you to study a multitude of facets of a birds life, from migration and population dynamics, to breeding site fidelity and dispersal as well as behaviour. From the collection of ringing data, the effects of environmental change, both natural and human-influenced, can be investigated as birds are brilliant indicators of environmental change.

Most of the work that I was doing in Canada was looking at migrating populations of neo-tropical migrants and most of the work that I do in Portugal is monitoring sub-Saharan migrants and the data that we collect can indicate the condition of the wintering grounds, the breeding success - which can be linked to habitat loss or other environmental pressures, to name but a few.

More topically, migration data from ringing ducks and geese was used by the BTO to inform government agencies on the potential spread of bird ‘flu. Whilst the threat can be looked at as relatively minor in hindsight, at the time the BTO had a significant amount of data from which to provide information and best target preventative measures.

5.) What places have you traveled to for your ringing activities?

I have travelled to North America, Southern Europe and to Oman in the Middle East to ring birds as well as being active in the UK. I still do a lot of my work with my father in South-West Lancashire, ringing Barn Owls, cannon-netting ducks and ringing a number of woodland sites out the year. In the summer, before I am found in Portugal, I can sometimes be found with my father at a local sewage works catching Swifts. My father, with my help when I can, rings about 1/3 of all Swifts ringed in the UK, the Swift is a species that he is especially passionate abou, but is sadly a species in decline.

In Canada, with the help and inspiration of Dr David Brewer, I helped set up the Ausable Bird Observatory and in the two years that we operated in South-West Ontario, we were able to ring over 15,000 birds of 120 species, six of those species being designated as ‘at risk’. Unfortunately, due to financial and political reasons, the observatory now no longer exists, however we acheived our aim of proving the significance of the Lake Huron shoreline as an important corridor for migrating birds.

I travel to Portugal at least once a year to visit my great friends and ring birds, mainly trans-Saharan migrants. I owe a lot to great friends such as Paulo Tenriero, Joao Paulo Lopes, Rui Brito and Antonio Periera whose hospitality and knowledge have always given me a great time. Recently I have talked about my work in Canada at the 4th Technical Meeting of Ringers in Portugal and I am involved with the work of APAA - the Portuguese Association of Ringers (http://www.apaa.pt).

6.) What are your favorite birds?

It is hard to choose a single favourite, but I do have a ’soft-spot’ for these:

Chesnut-sided Warbler
Nightjar
Black-shouldered Kite
Orange-crowned Warbler
Red-headed Woodpecker

Although these are a few particular favoruites, every bird is treated equally when we catch them!

Head over to Peter’s blog to read more - Peter Fearon’s Ringing Blog

2 Comments :Birding, Birds, Interview, Learn, Liverpool, Photography, Research, Ring, Ringing, Teach, UK, Understand, United Kingdom more...

Hanging With Other Birders

by Neville on Nov.19, 2009, under Birding, News

Since my recent foray into the world of Bird photography I’ve been meeting a lot of birders on-line and also out in the field. One of the best places to meet like minded people is by joining the BNG Birds group on Yahoo Groups. It’s a relatively simple matter of just signing in and joining the group. Once thats done you can see what birders in your area (Bangalore) are up to.

The group also has various trips on almost every weekend to places which are known for the variety in birds. I’ve been with this group to Nandi Hills, Shivanahalli and Anekal. In these trips I’ve basically learnt a lot more about birding than I would have going out by myself. I’ve seen and spotted many more species of birds and become better at identifying calls of certain birds.

There are a lot of great people who you can meet during these trips and its definetiely worth checking out. Catch you at the next BNG Birds trip!

1 Comment :Anekal, Bangalore, Birding, Birds, BNG Birds, Fun, Identify, India, Interesting, Internet, Karnataka, Learning, Meet, Nandi Hills, Photographers, Photography, Places, Press, Shivanahalli, Shots, Study, Travel, Yahoo, Yahoo Groups more...

Long Billed Vultures

by Neville on Nov.02, 2009, under Birding, Photography

Finally, I got to see them and shoot some great images of these magnificent flying creatures! They seem to be doing well in Ramnagaram and I hope that this continues. These LBV’s are becoming extinct all over the country because of a veterinary drug called diclofenac.

Incoming!

The Watchful Pair

Read more about the Long Billed Vulture / Indian Vulture at the Wikipedia entry. These magnificent birds are a marvel to look at so lets do everything we can to help them survive.

In flight

2 Comments :18 - 135 mm, Bangalore, Birding, Birds, Film, Flight, India, Indian Vulture, LBV, Long-billed Vulture, Nikon D80, Ramanagaram, Ramnagaram, Rocks, Scavengers, Sholay, Vulture more...

Highlight of the Week

by Neville on Oct.19, 2009, under Birding, Photography

This week was an incredible learning experience for me. Nandi Hills on Thursday with a bunch of 11 other birders from BNG Birds and with another group on Sunday morning at Shivanahalli.

I learnt a lot about birds, their habits, common traits and sounds. The weather was also superb and we had no problems with clouds getting in the way of our search for the birds.

The highlight for me was the Black Shouldered Kite -

Black Shouldered Kite

This beautiful bird was just about 10 feet away from me and was almost posing for me. I must have shot 50 odd images of this bird while he sat around patiently. Thanks to Mahesh for stopping his car so I could get down and take these shots!

In Deep Thought

Longing for the Sky

Are you done yet?

Comments are always welcome!

8 Comments :Bangalore, Beak, Beauty, Birding, Birds, Black, Black Shouldered Kite, BNG Birds, Feathers, Forests, Grey, Kite, Nandi Hills, Raptor, Red, Red eyes, Shivanhalli, Talons, Telephone Line, White, Wings, Yahoo group more...

Articles of Interest

by Neville on Jul.07, 2009, under News, Photography

Neat article here: Top ten annoying things to say to wildlife photographer, I’ve been lucky so far ! I’ve heard my share of such comments but heck what do I know? I’m still learning so maybe until I reach a higher level I won’t be complaining.

Here are a few more interesting articles that I’ve come across this week:

A very neat piece about bird photography by Vijay Cavale at his blog which you can also download.
I also found a couple of great sites for bird watchers and photographers in India. Here’s one I’ve registered and become a member at: India Nature Watch (http://www.indianaturewatch.net/). Another one is Indian Birds (http://www.indiabirds.com/). Lots of great user submitted shots on both those sites and a lot of great information for all level of photographers
Since I’ve taken an interest in bird photography I’ve been looking at all the different lenses that I could buy to get closer to the birds without getting closer (Yes, this is just another excuse to buy an expensive piece of glass.) So here’s a nice write up of the pros and cons by Sandeep R. Here is his piece about the different lenses he was looking at buying before he made his purchase: Super telephoto lenses under $1500 for bird photography.

Well that’s about it for today. Hoping to go to Mysore this Wednesday and hopefully everything will be back to normal there. Here is a shot from a lazy Sunday spent at Lalbagh in Bangalore.