Blog #10

Easter Holiday (week one)

 

The Easter holidays were nearly here, just a week to go! It was my first bird ringing session with Iain Livingston at Cathkin Marshes Nature Reserve near Glasgow.

I arrived there and met Iain, Jim Douglas (the Reserve Warden) and a number of other volunteers. Iain explained what the drill was for using the net; we had to drag it across sections of the bog before pushing down the edges every so often and walking over it carefully hoping to flush an elusive Jack Snipe or two!

 

(Photo Taken By Richard Whitson)

 

We spent four hours there and caught four Jack Snipe. As well as ringing them we also attached a GPS tracker to two of the birds which would allow their movements to be determined if they were recaptured.

I had lots of fun that day and learned a lot from Iain and the volunteer ringers.  Special thanks to Richard Whitson who took some photos that day of me releasing the Jack Snipe.

 

(Photo Taken By Richard Whitson)

 

On the first Saturday of the Scottish School’s Easter holidays I had a photography session at RSPB Lochwinnoch with David Palmar (www.photoscot.co.uk).  To begin with, David outlined the format for the day and covered some key wildlife photography ‘tips’ before we split into two groups. The group I was in went to the dedicated photography hide and the others to the wild bird feeding station.

Then after a while we swapped­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ over and spent a further 40 mins or so taking pictures.

After a chat to everyone over lunch we concentrated on ‘non-bird’ photography for the afternoon session; David very kindly gave me the opportunity to try out a macro lens for some close-up plant/fungi shots. I had never used a macro lens before so it was a great experience to try out some new techniques.