It was just as we thought. Tweedledee and Tweedledum the two young Greeenfinch we caught last week at Pilling were on a lad’s day out in South Morecambe Bay. Their real titles were of course TY58186 and TY58188 because as we all know, in the twenty first century, everyone and everything is just a number.
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Tweedledee
Tweedledum
In the shadow of Heysham Nuclear Power Station the lads and lasses of North Lancashire Ringing Group ringed TY58186 on the 27 September and then followed this up with TY58188 on 29 September. The two youngsters later ganged up in search of a good time with tasty food and something to drink than headed our way, only to blunder into more ringers’ mist nets on 18 October.
The journey from Heysham to Pilling around Morecambe Bay has many watering holes and eateries on the edge of the saltmarsh in which to take on supplies. The route is a regular one, with similar records for a number of species, including Chaffinch, Reed Bunting, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Lesser Redpoll and Cetti’s Warbler. If there were bird ringers in the coastal communities of Sunderland, Glasson or Thurnham they would for sure catch the very same birds that we do.
Morecambe Bay
There is no rivalry between our respective ringing groups. In fact the overnight lighting, warm waters and balmy air created by the Heysham nuclear power station is a magnet for large numbers of migratory birds, often rare ones, species we hardly ever see, never mind catch.
The major advantage of ringing at Heysham Power Station is that when setting mist nets in the dark for overnight arrivals, the ringers have no need to use a Petzl head torch. The radioactive glow from the ringers themselves is sufficient to light up their mist net rides thus saving money in buying batteries, the manufacture of which contributes to global warming and the eventual catastrophe.
We have no such luck in the dark, cold nights of Pilling where even now and just like the famous Pilling Potatoes, the Over Wyre folk are left in the dark about most things and to simply dream of life in the big wide world.
It was a glorious day in 1993 when the ramshackle Bridge Over The River Wyre gave way to one of steel and concrete to allow incomers from Blackpool, Poulton le Fylde and beyond to export civilisation. They brought with them all the essential things of the modern world – twitchers, motor cycle racing, pizza joints, litter, anti-social behaviour and traffic jams; very often all on the same day.
Since then things have never been quite the same in Wonderland.
Well, what do you know? The weather may relent overnight tonight and present us with a window of weather fit for ringing, the first for ten days.
Stay tuned to Another Bird Blog. You know it makes sense.
