Rouzels

So, it’s been a while then… Massive case of writers block/lack of time/willing so not written anything since June. Apologies, anyhow.

I think I’ll take the opportunity to travel back in time a few weeks to the end of my latest conservation position and summarise what I was doing and how it worked out in the end.

As I’ve written previously,  I’ve been under contract as a Research Assistant for the RSPB on a project looking at the behaviour and habitats of Ring Ouzels Turdus torquatus. This year has been unbelievably frustrating birds-wise and has been a stark contract to last year, in one valley at least. To recap, I was comparing one ‘control’ valley – in this case Great Crowden Valley whose population of breeding Ring Ouzels has remained stable since 1990 , with a ‘treatment’ valley – at the RSPB’s Dove Stone nature reserve whose population has crashed since 1990. The word treatment implies that a course of productive management techniques may stem from the study.

Only one problem this year – the population of breeding Ouzels crashed in the control valley. Last year I had 8 or 9 confirmed breeding pairs in the valley, figures that correspond to well to post-1990 figures. This year I have had 2 confirmed breeding pairs, and probably not at the same time either (Ring Ouzels have 2 broods and probably 3 breeding attempts, but if the 2nd brood fails they won’t try again, unlike for the 1st brood). I must admit I’m struggling to understand why. The weather may be an obvious answer, April was unseasonably warm and May was very cold and wet, and there were quite a few birds seen in the valley but only a very small handful of these bred. However Ring Ouzels are hardy birds so I’m not sure weather is the answer. Predation also maybe an answer, I anecdotally saw a lot more stoats and weasels in Crowden than last year. But besides, there is an elephant in the room.

My ‘treatment’ valley at Dove Stone was stable with 2 breeding pairs both breeding twice; an improvement on last year when I had two pairs probably breeding once each, these birds had the exact same weather conditions to contend with; again I was also seeing more stoats and weasels. So it’s a mystery so far and a good reason to keep studying these fantastic birds.

Male Ring Ouzel at Dove Stone – July ’15

Male Ring Ouzel and fledgling at Dove Stone

It was pretty difficult at times this year when I was faced with walking up an down the control valley knowing in all likelihood I won’t see any of the birds I’m supposed to see, it was frustrating even with the phrase ‘no data is as good as lots of data’ ringing in my ears.

Even so it was still enjoyable, I saw my first English Red Kite Milvus milvus flying low over the valley. I was surrounded by Green Hairstreak Callophrys rubi butterflies  for a large period of spring which were joined by Emperor Saturnia pavonia moths and then later on by Oak Egger Lasiocampa quercus moths (one of which was in the bill of a Ring Ouzel at Dove Stone!). Overall, a gratifying summer which had so much more potential.

Back to Work

Wow, had an amazing response to my last blog on finding two suspiciously dead badgers on a trip out. It also confirmed to me what an amazingly small world conservation is, I had a brief chat on twitter with one of the country’s premier badger campaigners who I found out later to be the step-mother of one of my dearest friends.

I’ve been back in paid employment this month for the first time since early September and it feels fantastic, again re-enforcing my belief that 5 years of hard graft volunteering was worth it in the end! I briefly mentioned what I do in my post ‘The Year it all Happened (part 2)’  but I’ll go into a tad more detail now.

I’m currently working for the RSPB and my job is surveying Ring Ouzels and their habitat in two neighbouring Peak District valleys, one valley, Crowden, where the breeding population has remained stable, and the other, Dove Stone, where the population has crashed in the last 25 years. The first thing to do once I got all my kit was to start surveying the habitat, arguably the most important element of my job. This is to see if there are any differences in vegetation and vegetation density between the two valleys.

Pic 1. A solid mass of bilberry

I have two different elements to survey, habitat structure and habitat composition. Composition involves looking at what plants are living at a set point, and structure involves looking at the height and density of the vegetation in the same set point. All my survey points are on 500 metre intervals placed in and around the respective valleys. Each survey point has 16 individual plots within it to survey so it’s pretty comprehensive.

Pic 2: Checking the density

Pic 3. A more mixed plot

It’s probably easier to demonstrate with pictures. So picture 1 demonstrates an individual plot. The metal square is called a quadrat and this particular quadrat is half a metre square in size. In picture 1 the vegetation in 100% bilberry. In picture 2 I’m checking the structure of the same plot, I have to count the white stripes on the pole, there are 9 in total, the less stripes I can see the more dense the vegetation is. In this case I saw 7 stripes out of 9 which means it is relatively dense. Picture 3 shows a more typical plot which is more varied in composition, it looks something like 25% sedge, 50% bilberry and the rest a mix of grass and moss (sorry the photo quality on the work’s phone is terrible!).

It’s pretty tough work to be honest, there’s a lot of hill walking and a lot of kit to carry. I’ve been blessed with good weather so far and I’ve been able to leave some of my waterproofs in the car to save on weight (rather foolishly some may argue!). The first week in particular reminded me how much fitness I lost over the winter, my legs ceasing to work by the end of it but I’m over the ring rust stage and am enjoying the walking.

I’ve now completed the first round (of four) of vegetation surveying and now I’m onto the good bit, the surveying for the Ring Ouzels themselves. More of which another time, but I’ll leave with a pic of the first Ouzel I saw this year (you’ll have to believe me, it is there I promise!).

Ring Ouzel at Dove Stone 22nd April 2015. Photo: Author

 

2014, the year it finally happened! (part 2)

Top of Great Crowden Valley. Photo: Alex Cropper

So this is it. After 4 years of volunteering, after cutting back on work hours to concentrate on a conservation career, and after eventually quitting my bar job altogether to focus on achieving my goal, I finally did it! I got a paid job in wildlife conservation!

My first paid conservation job was as a Research Assistant for the RSPB’s Conservation Science department. My task was to survey a bird called a Ring Ouzel Turdus torquatus (basically a migratory blackbird-esque thrush with a white collar) and their habitat at my old stomping ground of Dove Stone in Saddleworth, UK. A bit different from eradicating rats definitely!

The task was very simple; to compare two valleys at the vast RSPB Dove Stone reserve. One, Great Crowden Valley, has a long term stable breeding population, the other, Dove Stone Edges/Chew Valley, has had a population crash in the last 25 years. It was my job to gather data to determine any differences between the two valleys. This involved me surveying each valley once a week for the birds themselves, and surveying the valleys once a month for their habitat (basically comparing vegetation types and density of said vegetation). It was such a brilliant job, I had two scenic valleys that I called my office for 4 months, I saw them change subtly over the months. A dank, foggy, wintry scene in April to a balmy red hot perfect summer’s day in July. I was surrounded by fantastic wildlife, chuckling grouse, croaky Ravens, enigmatic Peregrines, Stonechats, Whinchats, Dippers, Common Lizards,  Mountain Hares, Green Hairstreak butterflies and loads more.

Final Ring Ouzel tally (from the top of my head, I may be wrong here!) : Great Crowden: 8 breeding pairs from 10 territories. Dove Stone Edges/Chew Valley: 2 breeding pairs.

Lizard in Great Crowden Valley. Photo: Alex Cropper

Vegetation surveying! Photo: Hayley Percival

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was difficult at times however, I came from working with a great close-knit team on St. Agnes to working literally by myself for weeks on end, sometimes not seeing a soul all day. I did eventually get myself a mad as a box of frogs volunteer to help which was amazing and a tad surreal (I went from volunteer myself to recruiter of volunteer within a few months!). I’d definitely do this job again no question!

After 4 months the contract came to an end and I found myself out of work, for all of a week! Then I had my most privileged job ever (not sure it can be beaten!)….