Saturday 17 January 2015

Reedbeds and blizzards...and only glimpses of beardies


 Day 1 of the Bearded Tit radio-tracking project for me and the weather was a little unfriendly!
Iain Malzter is studying these amazing reed specialists for his Ph.D. See here for more info.

The reedbed stretches for some miles along the north bank of the River Tay and down among the reeds it feels like a lost world, eerily silent save for the occasional 'ping' calls of beardies somewhere just out of sight. That low hill on the extreme left skyline is the city of Dundee.

Day 2 was not much better weather-wise. We did see a pair of beardies feeding very close to the ground in one of the short breaks between blizzards. Very cool to see though it turns out neither were carrying one of his minute radio-transmitters.
After days of bad weather and no prospect of it improving, Iain pulled the winter tagging and tracking project. Enjoyed my brief time up there and thanks Iain for teaching me a little QGIS magic.