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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...

Shooting with the Pros

by Neville on Apr.22, 2009, under Misc, Photography

After a long, long. long wait I’ve managed to get myself a Nikon D80 DSLR camera. I’ve been using my trusty old P&S camera for almost 3 years now and have taken some of my best images with it. Now that I’ve had the D80 for about one month I must say the wait for the DSLR has been worth it.

The first time I used it was at the press event for the unveiling of the Royal Challenger Cheerleaders in Bangalore. I had barely touched the camera because I was so intimidated by it, but I had carried it to the stadium. My official photographer was stuck at another event on the other end of the city. So I had to pull out my camera and start shooting.

Having about 50 some photographers at the event along with at least 15 camera crews all around me was intimidating. All most all the photographers had 2 cameras hanging around their necks along with an array of lenses which they kept switching. People kept pushing each other around and the fact that we were supposed to stay about 5 meters away from the Cheerleaders didn’t help matters much.

I realized that there was no point waiting and being nervous so I just took out my camera and started clicking away. I was caught in the horde of photographers who were yelling at the event organizers while others were asking the Cheerleaders to turn this way and that. I just went with the flow and just kept taking pictures. I got yelled at for being in the frame by a couple of photographers but I realized there was no point being sorry because the event was a free for all and we had to take what we could get.

At the end of the day I was very happy with the work that I had done. I got confirmation of my good work when I managed to sell some of them to a web portal and the fact that my images will be used in two magazines in Bangalore, 080 and Explocity. A veryhappy moment for me but also a time to sit back and realize that I need to learn all I can about my camera and photography. Also I need to stop being so nervous about what people are thinking about me when shooting!