Ringed birds on our beaches - How you can help

Office Sea Champion Viv Philips has been volunteering with MCS for over 7 years! Each year she helps us to coordinate and distribute 150K Pocket Good Fish Guides and she is instrumental in helping identify and contact chefs/recipe contributors for our Fish of the Month recipes project. Viv is an ecologist by trade and is a passionate and experienced ornithologist . She got to thinking about our volunteers out on the beaches and how they may come across dead birds that are ringed but not know what to do so she's shared just how important it is to report any ringed birds you find and how to go about it.

"I was brought up by the sea and in my career as an ecologist had some wonderful jobs on offshore islands. I trained as a bird ringer in the early 1970s and was involved in seabird studies in the UK and abroad. It was great fun scrabbling about on cliffs and seeing beautiful seabirds and their chicks close-up. It also felt very worthwhile as the results from recaptured or found dead, ringed birds gave so much vital insight into where the birds go, their survival and population trends.



Having retired I now volunteer for The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) in the Ross-on-Wye office one day a week. I seem to have settled a long way from the sea but working with the inspiring MCS team keeps me in touch. Bringing some of my previous experience with me I would like to urge everyone who is out and about on the seashore to look for rings on dead birds and pass on the information. It is always sad to find a dead animal but there can be a lot to learn from some of these which in turn can help in their conservation.

About bird ringing

The British and Irish Ringing Scheme is run by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). Over 900,000 birds are ringed in Britain and Ireland each year by over 2,600 trained ringers, most of whom are volunteers. Ringing generates information on the survival, productivity and movements of birds, helping us to understand why populations are changing - questions that are vital to answer for bird conservation.

Placing a lightweight, uniquely numbered, metal ring around a bird’s leg provides a reliable and harmless method of identifying birds as individuals.

Examples of a British and a foreign ring taken from dead gulls

Although there has been bird ringing in Britain and Ireland for over 100 years, we are still discovering new facts about migration routes and wintering areas.


Amazing facts – some birds can live almost as long as humans!

Very few wild birds reach anything like their maximum potential age as there are too many factors working against them – predators, accidents, weather, disease, starvation and plain bad luck. Even so, the top five longevities are staggering. 

Species	Age	Origin
Manx Shearwater	51 years	Bardsey Bird Observatory
Razorbill	42 years	Bardsey Bird Observatory
Fulmar	41 years	Eynhallow, Orkney
Oystercatcher	40 years	Lincolnshire
Pink-footed Goose	39 years	Tayside

Longevity records

These longevity records are even more remarkable when you consider the vast distances these birds will have covered in their lifetimes. The 51 year old Manx Shearwater from west Wales (seen left at the tender age of 48) will have spent 51 winters off the coast of southern Argentina, covering 1.5 million kilometres just getting there and back! 

How you can help 

If you’re out and about at the seaside whether it be for a beach clean or a leisurely stroll, and you come across a dead bird, please have a quick look to see if it is ringed and if it is, report it to the BTO. 

How to report a ringed bird 

The information required is: 

• The unique number on the ring (and country of origin if not a British ring)
• The date found
• The location where found (beach name, nearest town/village, county etc)
• Species if known
• A photograph can be useful
• Your contact details

Please report the information using the Euring website. Alternatively you can send the information to the Ringing Office, BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk IP24 2PU. 

For each ring number reported, the finder receives notification of what it was and where and when it was ringed. It doesn’t matter if you don't recognise what species the bird is, the unique number together with where and when you found it gives vital information." 

A big thanks to Viv for sharing her knowledge about bird ringing. More information about the BTO’s ringing scheme can be found on their website here: 

www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/ringing/about

Ocean Literacy for disabled children - take two!

Pegasus

A couple of years ago John an MCS Sea Champion and education volunteer shared a post about fostering Ocean Literacy in disabled children through sailing in the Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter, Cornubia. The post (read here) described taking them out for a day sailing in the River Tamar and in Plymouth Sound looking at the wildlife on and under the pontoons at Mayflower Marina. Now John is back with a different boat but the work is more important than ever.  

Since my last post, the big change is that Cornubia has gone to the East Coast, and the sailing trips are now done in The Island Trust’s traditionally rigged boats, Pegasus (Pegasus.jpg) or Tectona (Tectona.jpg) based in Plymouth Yacht Haven. The children come from the same schools, the programme on board is virtually identical, and I transferred from one charity to the other to deliver it. It was important to reassure the providing schools that a different charity using different boats was able to deliver what they had come to expect. 

Tectona

In the longer term, in order to continue to get existing and additional schools’ participation and funding from previous and new grant-giving charities we would need to be able to prove that were doing at least as well as in Cornubia. So it was a good thing that we had set up a performance measurement system in 2013 and were able to transfer it from one organisation to the other. It is less comprehensive and complex than the system The Island Trust uses for their usual residential trips, but they immediately saw the advantage of being able to compare like with like and were happy to use what is a very simple feedback mechanism.

We wanted a system independent of things outside the control of the children and their carers. So using the scores in our guide would only have worked if we could see pretty much the same things on each trip, which we couldn’t. And we wanted the same system for all levels of ability. What we have is based on the “Full Value” model, set out in “True Colours – Uncovering the full value of your organisation.” See https://www.ncvo.org.uk/component/redshop/1-publications/P67-true-colours.

There are four elements of full value:

• Primary Outcomes
• Secondary Outcomes
• Primary Satisfaction
• Secondary Satisfaction

We define our primary stakeholders as the children themselves, and although the potential range of secondary stakeholders is huge, we limit it to the parents, teachers, teaching assistants or carers who come on board with the children. That way we can measure the elements in the same way and on the day. The outcome for both is learning: do they know more after the trip than before. And satisfaction is “did they enjoy it?”

Life beneath the keel - a settlement plate

At the start of the day, once we’ve got them on the pontoon and close to the boat, but before I start telling them about “Life Beneath The Keel,” we ask the children and their carers to rate how much they think they know about the marine environment and maritime activities on a scale of 1 - 9. They remember this number and once on board they tick the appropriate box on the front of the feedback form. At the end of the day, using the back of the form we ask the same question. We also ask them whether they enjoyed their day using a smiley, neutral or frowning face and for a few words on what they think they got out of it.

To report on the full year’s outcomes I average the before and after scores. The disadvantage of this is that it hides the really valuable learning outcome of discovering you don’t know as much as you thought you did, so the second score is lower than the first – and it does happen. It also fails to capture those who rate their new level of knowledge as 10/9 – as 4 children from one school did.

As the numerical assessments in the table below show, there were improvements in outcomes, secondary satisfaction stayed at 100% and there was a slight drop in primary satisfaction (fewer children enjoyed their day) mostly due to failures to record their views.

Summary of performance monitoring statistics

Outcomes – Averages of levels of knowledge

Knowledge (1-9)    Marine - pre            Maritime - pre        Marine - post          Maritime - post

2013

Children (n=80)       4.84                            4.69                           6.49                            6.25

Adults (n=55)           4.85                            5.05                           6.87                            6.60

2014

Children (n=62)       4.02                            3.90                           6.13                            6.07

Adults (n=39)           4.72                            4.95                           6.85                            6.72

2015

Children (n=97)       4.37                            3.24                           6.29                            6.31

Adults (n=47)           5.14                            5.38                           7.05                            7.13

2016

Children (n=119)     4.31                            4.28                           6.24                            6.44

Adults (n=54)           4.73                            4.92                           6.77                            6.88

2017

Children (n=100)     4.74                            4.50                           6.78                            6.67

Adults (n=38)           4.67                            5.23                           7.20                            7.00

Satisfaction

2013

Children                                                        100

Adults                                                            100

2014

Children                                                        97[1]

Adults                                                            100

2015

Children                                                        96[2]

Adults                                                            100

2016

Children                                                        97[3]

Adults                                                            100

2017

Children                                                        93[4]

Adults                                                            100

We started doing this in Cornubia in 2010 and took over 650 children their carers, teachers or parents. In 2017 in Tectona we helped over 100 more to see the sea differently.

So we must be getting something right. Narrative comments bear this out. Rhiannon, from Plymstock school, said, “I enjoyed it all. I now know why the seaweed is a different colour. It was amazing.” What did Anne-Marie, a teaching assistant from Pencalenick school think her charges had got out of their day? “Team building. Lots of knowledge about the sea. The students grew in confidence and it was nice to see them interacting with each other when they don't usually choose to at school. A great day, thank you.” The mother of one of the students commented via the website, “My son George has just taken part on a day’s sailing on board the 'Tectona'. He is 16 and has high functioning autism. He came back absolutely full of passion and excitement after today. So lovely to see as he doesn't get involved in many activities due to his anxiety.”

We know some teachers follow up in the classroom what their students have learnt on board, but it’s very difficult to get a handle on this. I’ve offered some of the teachers a “Cool Seas” session, but in spite of enthusiasm on the day, none of them has come back suggesting a date. More work needed there, I think. However, on a couple of occasions when it was too windy to go to sea, I had a copy of the “Aliens of the Deep” presentation on my laptop so I could run the activity and the learners were able to design their own aliens on the blank page in the guide. 

Plymstock school's Aliens of the Deep

The Island Trust is a bigger charity, and has a head of fund raising, but I still help applying for grants for these trips. In the first year, 2017 we called the project, “The Cornubia Legacy,” but now, rather than look backwards, it is “Ocean Discoverability.” A big change for me was that I became responsible for programming all the trips 2017, keeping the old schools in the scheme and looking for new ones to join and scheduling them. Herding cats! The swing to that roundabout was that with The Island Trust boats having permanent crew I was no longer first mate, which freed me up to look after the educational element of the day more, and to talk to the teachers about ways of improving it. They do let me pull the occasional rope.

Part of what made the Cornubia trips different to other sailing trips was the marine biology element, and with the transfer of the microscope, TV etc, this too continued. The marine life growing on the pontoons at Plymouth Yacht Haven is not as rich as it is at Mayflower Marina, but there were always enough mussels to show barnacles, keel worms and sea mat feeding, and types of sea weeds to demonstrate their variety of form and colour.

Sea mat feeding

The baited recoverable underwater video (BRUV) showed life on the seabed there. Unlike at Mayflower there are always shore crabs, and seeing them squabbling over the bait is a huge hit. We were all quite excited by the battle between a large velvet swimming crab, with big sharp claws, and a smaller shore crab, especially as the smaller crab won, to be joined by all the other shore crabs, who then did what they do best, squabbling over the bait. (Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtqV3B1NAGc) . Trawling for plankton and looking at it under the microscope is just as popular and helps with mobility and team work as well as having educational value.

Shore crab takes on velvet swimming crab

Vertical plankon trawl

Coscinodiscus sp. prob wailesii, a diatrom & shrimp larva

That it works, and is transferrable is, I think, now clear. So, at the SW Marine Ecosystem Conference this year I presented on the opportunity that Sail Training presents for promoting Ocean Literacy. I hope this will kick off a process aimed at providing sail trainers with a tool kit of activities they can fit into their voyage plans which will add further value to the experience they are giving the young people that sail with them. There might even be a role for Sea Champions. Wouldn’t it be great if we could show more recreational sea users how amazing the marine environment is?

Taking Marine Conservation into the Classroom

Sea Champion Fiona showing the class her diving equipment

Sea Champion Fiona is an avid marine conservationist and diver and was really keen to share some important messages with the younger generation. With the buzz of Blue Planet 2 putting the topic of plastic pollution on everyone's mind she decided to take this opportunity to visit a local junior school and share the marine conservation love.  

Just as most people were gearing up for Christmas on a cold November morning, I went into Drayton Junior School to talk to two groups of children all about the polar regions and man’s impact on them. I saw this as an ideal opportunity to engage youngsters on the very current issues of marine litter and plastics and what they can do to help.

I ran through information on the Arctic and Antarctic polar regions, the similarities and differences and some of the animals that live there. I then went through some of the incredible adaptations they have acquired to enable them to survive in such harsh environments. I showed them short videos and played some sounds of icebergs creaking and cracking. I then went on to demonstrate that in such remote regions man’s impact is still evident as marine litter has been found in all areas of the globe.

I described what marine litter is, where most of it comes from and what the impacts of the litter are to our environment and wildlife, especially plastics. Most importantly I then explained to them what they can do to help reduce the problem. I then finished off with a wonderful animated video that illustrates the problem perfectly without being too hard hitting and they were transfixed.

Both groups were so well behaved and listened very intently (apart from a windy young lad in the front row of the first group and his friends with the giggles… I must admit I found it hard not to laugh too!) They answered all the questions so enthusiastically and were very knowledgeable which was brilliant and at the end I had some great questions and observations which really demonstrated that they had been listening.

After Fiona's session the teacher ran a competition to design a poster on the polar region and man's impact on them

I finished off the session by showing them my dive kit and explained how it is used in my work – to gather survey data to assess the condition of the designated sites of the marine environment and also assess man’s impact on them. Some of them volunteered to try breathing off the twin set regulators with a mask, but sadly time ran out so further students opted to come back during break time and have a go which was encouraging. However the bell went off all too quickly just like my school days and it was time to go.

All in all it was a very enjoyable experience and I really felt they had absorbed what I’d said. Fingers crossed there may be some future conservationists or marine biologists amongst them. It was a very satisfying day and if anyone is considering doing some volunteer environmental education in schools, then I would encourage it wholeheartedly. It’s a really positive experience for all involved.

Hooked on volunteering - what else can I do?

Michelle on the beach with a group of volunteers after a beach clean

When people come and volunteer with us at the Marine Conservation Society there are many different ways they can get started. They may begin by organising a beach clean or doing Seasearch dives, doing some community fundraising or surveying the shoreline for our CoCoast project. So many of our volunteers get hooked on marine conservation and want to do more. That was the case for Sea Champion Michelle who recently won our Conservation Award. Read on below to find out how she got started and all the great work she's done so far.

Four years ago I found myself getting more and more fed up at finding litter along the coasts and shore lines when I went to the beach and wondered where it kept coming from as it couldn’t just be from what people had left behind. So I decided to find out more and organise a beach clean for one of the local beaches that I grew up next to.

I found the Marine Conservation Society Beachwatch page on the internet by chance as I was just scrolling through and decided to join and become a Beachwatch Organiser for Bacton Beach in Norfolk.

My first beach clean was back in November 2013. It was just me and my 12 year old daughter at the time and we collected a couple of bin bags full. I found it very satisfying and it was the perfect excuse to go down the beach and do something worthwhile whilst there. Once I saw what was involved in the surveys and understood how important they are I knew there was a real opportunity to make changes.

At the next clean there were four of us and we managed four bin bags full. Inspired I decided to start advertising more and so made a Facebook page and a Twitter account. The number of people coming out to help has grown over the years and we now have a fantastic group of regular volunteers.

After a little time I decided to take on another beach and became the organiser for a beach next to Bacton beach called Walcott which was in desperate need of some cleaning after the very severe surge tide of December 2013. Back then a lot of people lost their homes and there was severe flood damage to peoples' property which meant a lot of building debris, plastic piping, bags, polystyrene and rubber insulation found its way onto the beach. At the first beach clean at Walcott ten of us collected a whopping 110 kg of rubbish!

Not long after whilst walking with my son along another beach a few miles south called Sea Palling we found dead birds caught up in fishing rope and lots of litter too, so I decided to take on that beach as well. The final beach I took on was Mundesley where I went to school and have many happy memories of visiting. We have been working away at clearing up a huge polystyrene mountain there behind the sea defences since February 2017, it is now more of a mole hill and much improved!

I have been the Beachwatch Organiser for all these beaches since. They are relatively small beaches, but almost every weekend I organise a beach clean for one of them as well as doing the year round surveys and seal warden duties in the winter. So there I was, looking after four beaches but I still felt like there was more I could be doing so 3 years ago I became a Sea champion and boy have I been busy since!

As more people found out about the beach cleans I was asked to give a talk at Bacton First School to key stage 2 children. This was a great opportunity to educate the younger generation. I then did another two beach clean talks at a primary school and a Brownie group both of which I did a small beach clean with too.

Eventually I started getting contacted by companies such as Aviva and McDonalds asking if I could organise beach cleans as part of their charity initiative days. I did one with Aviva and Virgin Money both in 2016 and 2017 and a couple with Victory housing group.

Working at Sainsburys I was also able to be part of their local heroes scheme where they donate up to £200 per financial year depending on how many hours you volunteer for a charity. The Marine Conservation Society gets £200 per year from that as well as some fundraising I do whilst manning stalls at events.

I've even tried my hand at a bit of media work and have done a couple of radio interviews too as well as had the opportunity to take part in Sky TV's Ocean Rescue programme as part of a new children's program.

 
Recently it was a very nice surprise to be invited to the Marine Conservation Society AGM in London and to have won their Conservation Award! I was very touched and happy to receive this as it means a lot to me. I do the beach cleans as it is something I feel strongly about and enjoy, but receiving this was fantastic and a huge thank you for the opportunity and recognition . It has been a fantastic four years so far and hopefully many more to come!

 


Phew, what a trooper! A huge thank you Michelle. The award was very well deserved and we can't wait to see what you get up to next 🙂.

A Sea Champion Out of Water

Kay getting seaweed savvy out on the shore

Here at MCS we get approached all the time by people who live nowhere near the sea but still want to volunteer with us. Can they still become a Sea Champion, they ask? And if they did, what could they do? Well, the answer is YES you can and there's lots to do no matter how far from the sea you are. Kay one of our Bristol Sea Champions wondered those very things and here's what she's been up to. 

With a passion for the sea and all things marine, I enthusiastically signed up to become a Marine Conservation Society Sea Champion. A dose of reality then set in. I live in Bristol which is not on the coast and lacks beaches and rock pools to explore, so was this really a good idea?

I have spent the last year involved in a number of marine themed activities from dressing up at local events, to promoting MCS, to finding a dead ray on a stretch of coast one weekend.

Here are some of the things that you can do which can involve friends, your work place or simply using the power of one - you:

Find out if your Council has a ban on releases of balloons and sky lanterns on their land via this list. If not, get campaigning for a ban locally.  There is loads of useful info and resources on the MCS Don’t Let Go website, including alternative ideas for celebrations and commemorations.

With the increased awareness of plastic pollution you could link in with local environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and animal welfare organisations such as the RSPCA. You can show your support by signing the pledge page to show your support for a local ban and then share with your friends on social media.

Set aside some time even if only once a month to spend a day at the weekend exploring your nearest bit of coast. Take part in a MCS wildlife sightings survey for jellyfish, turtles, basking sharks or alien species – all on the website. Or just wander, explore, take photos and see what you find.

Find out the  Sea Champions nearest to you from your regional Volunteer Manager and meet up to discuss what you can do locally – a great excuse for a coffee and cake or even something stronger!

Kay meeting up with some other Sea Champions in Bristol

Learning more about all things marine can give you the confidence to inform people about what is going on in our marine environment. Future Learn do a free online course on Monitoring the Oceans from Space.

Grab a coffee, sit down and listen to one of the podcasts about the sea and all things marine that are out there. Ocean currents or the BBC Blue Planet podcasts.

Why not take up the Plastic Challenge and see if you can get your workplace/local school involved.

It's also always worth checking out the current MCS campaigns page as there are lots of different ways you can get involved listed on there. 

Kay dressed as MCS's Larry the Lobster helping out at the Bristol Festival of Nature

So the answer is yes you can be a Sea Champion and get active without living near the coast but a word of warning – as you start doing things you will find you want to do more and more!





 

Why did I become a Sea Champion?

It's always great to learn from our lovely volunteers just what made them want to get involved in the first place and so when South East Sea Champion Steve got in touch to share his reasons we thought others might like to read about it, just in case you were thinking about it too.

Retiring in late 2014 was brilliant. Half a career teaching mainly English and Art, then half a career in the civil service largely writing and delivering training and presentations was over. I made myself a promise which was to avoid what frustrated or bored me so minimal IT and no dismal senior management to deal with. 

In my twenties and thirties I did some freelance cartooning and wanted to get back to that. I also love allotment gardening and cooking so those were definite. We retired back to the sea, having lived in Southsea when first married and missed it when in commutersville nearer London. So, retirement also meant joining Bexhill Environmental Group (which organises beach cleans), doing the publicity for the local art society, and trying various activities through the U3A (University of the Third Age). I now love Bexhill on Sea which is pleasantly eccentric.

My daughter, meanwhile, became qualified as a marine biologist and so by osmosis and her patience I began to gather knowledge about marine issues, plus the occasional physical attack if I cooked the wrong fish. At the excellent Bexhill Festival of the Sea in 2016 I picked up various leaflets – a disease for which there is no cure – and the more I read about MCS the more I thought, ‘This is worthwhile’.

Therefore, in 2017 after the Festival and a chat with Volunteer Manager Kate I joined up as a Sea Champion. Slightly baffled by the number of other organisations with overlapping functions; Clean Seas, Sussex Wildlife and MSC, I thought MCS had the clearer overview. 

The next consideration was how could I be most useful? Well, teaching and training held me in good stead so I’ve now completed the preparation to go into schools to deliver MCS' education workshops. Then I thought I would draw a few cartoons which may amuse but get people thinking too. I sell my cartoon cards locally but they don’t have a message as such, so this was more of a challenge to balance the two. I hope that they are a useful tool to get people thinking about marine issues. Then next up is to give a talk to the area U3A about plastics in the marine environment.

It’s nice in your sixties to do something new and to use the skills acquired over the years. It’s also nice to be involved with all ages in MCS as many of the clubs, societies and activities available when you retire are a bit shuffler-dominated. Oh, I’m one of those too, so no criticism intended. 

I’d be happy to link up with anyone in the Hastings to Eastbourne area for local activities – please contact me via Kate (kate.whitton@mcsuk.org) if so. Regards, Steve Hall.