I too, initially thought that taking Mr Shag into care was a bit strange. It was mobile enough, diving, climbing steps and throwing itself back into the water from the steel walkway. It was also seen to fly a short distance over the reservior whilst I was there and seen flying again later on in the morning.

The fact that the bird came so close to Judith wasnt that unusual, as Ian Mc has pointed out earlier on in the thread, there is a good chance Mr Shag has never seen a human, (never mind a crowd of humans with bins,camera's etc) so wouldnt have seen Judith as a threat.

As for the field-I haven't a clue!

As for the Birmingham and Bradford birds-yes they may have been tame and approachable, but does anybody really know thier fate. Did they successfully fly off and get back to the coast, or did they drop from the sky with exhaustion on thier way back to the sea over the Pennines or Welsh mountains never to be found. Did they get taken by a predator or simply die in the water (like poor Mr Auk-sorry Warfy) and not get found.

As Mr Heaton as pointed out, Mr Shag was under weight and He had been present for several days. We have no way of knowing if He was putting weight on or losing weight during his visit.

At least he now has/had a better chance of getting home to find Mrs Shag and raise lots of Junior Shag's (one at Castleshaw would be nice) and live happily ever after.

Judith-I think you did the right thing on this occasion


-- Edited by Mark Rigby at 22:55, 2008-08-27

Still not sure on this one. I am in total admiration of Judith and the hours put in for the cause of nature in all it's forms. However I can't see that taking into captivity an apparently healthy bird, even with the best possible intentions is the correct course of action. It's obvious from comments posted that there is a wide variety of views on this topic but debate is a healthy thing and thanks to this web site this is possible.
Cheers Ian

Lee Evans has just put out a summary of the Shag 'wreck' and I've copied it here for interest. Any theories as to what caused a mass inland invasion of juvs?


"Since mid-August 2008, up to 27 Eurasian Shags have been displaced inland, from Greater Manchester south to London. None so far have been ringed and only one (at Withins Reservoir) has been in poor health.

Analysis of Records

All records involve juveniles

The first to appear was at Hilfield Park Reservoir (Hertfordshire) on 15-17 August. This was followed by the first of at least 7 in Cambridgeshire - at Ferry Meadows Gunwade Lake on 18-19, then on Overton Lake on 21st.

Following one at Pitsford Reservoir Yacht Club (Northamptonshire) on 19th, up to 5 were then discovered at Grafham Water (Cambs), with three showing well as they roosted on pontoons off the Fishing Lodge from 20-21 and two more off the Dam on 21st; one remained until 22nd. Nearby, a further juvenile was at Diddington Pits, Paxton Pits NR (Cambs) on 20-21, with possibly the same bird on Island & Pumphouse Pit on 22 and Heronry South Pit on 23-25.

The first of 6 juveniles arrived at Draycote Water (Warwickshire) on 21st, with all 6 noted on 23rd and up to 5 remaining until 26th. At the main Nene Barrage Lake at Clifford Hill GP (Northants), a juvenile remained there or on the adjacent Fishing Lake from 21-25, with a second bird present on 24th.

In Greater Manchester, a juvenile at Withins Reservoir from 23rd was taken into care on 25th, with further singles appearing at Harrold Country Park (North Beds) on 23-25, Fowlmere RSPB (Cambs) (flew off south at 0750), Calvert BBOWT Lake (Bucks) on 24th (present from mid-morning to midday), Rother Valley Country Park (South Yorks) on 24th, Earls Barton Mary's Lake (Northants) on 24th and Farmoor Reservoir (Oxfordshire) on 24th.

More recently, singles were at Daventry Reservoir Country Park (Northants) on 25th, Eyebrook Reservoir (Leics) on 25-26 (flew off at 0745) and at Queen Mother Reservoir (London/Berks) on 26th. "

Just cos i missed it i,m allowed a say county birders had every oppertunity to see this cracker had they put the effort in ,myself included in the 'i,ll go tommorow crowd' fact is I could have gone and seen it but chose to attend to other pressing matters i.e tiling the bathroom before she stopped feeding me,so for me the golden rule is when you get the word drop everything and go or for ever hold your piece,and simon if you can pass our house on your way to wales that would ever so nice of you.

cheers geoff (1 futher away from 200)

There's always bloody one isn't there

Ian McKerchar wrote

Of the 25 plus Shags seen in the our county none have been found dead


Just for the record the juv Shag on Audenshaw in Sept 87 which was also ridiculously tame was found dead after a few days.

Bearing in mind I do like playing devil's advocate and being my forum have a vested interest in poking threads with a big stick to stir up interesting posts from time to time , was the Shag's apparent tameness really all that unusual? The answer to that is frankly no! On their breeding grounds you can get right up to them (like you can Puffins but don't go trying to catch one of them so close to the cliff edges ), a friend of mine once sheltered from a storm on a Cornish beach sat literally right next to a Shag which simply waddled off once the storm has passed. The Hollingworth Lake Shag was easily approachable by boat and one only has to look for Shag photos taken in inland UK on the 'net to see that their apparent tameness is commonplace. Of the 25 plus Shags seen in the our county none have been found dead, nor have any of the now 30 plus individuals found inland in the UK so far this month, some of the Shags in our county at least have stayed for decent lengths of time and so feeding certainly isn't a problem.

Would we have grabbed the Upland Sandpiper on the Isles of Scilly many years ago that allowed itself to be fed by hand and even discraced itself by taking a worm from a birder's mouth, surely that's not 'usual behaviour'?

As for John's comments about it 'becoming disorientated and fading away', we make no attempt to trap every rare vagrant we come across and lets face it you can't get much more disorientated than them and they face certain death most of the time (but imagine the plane costs to transport them all back to their homelands if we did, then again I remember a Cheshire Black-billed Cuckoo and Irish Bald Eagle being flown back to the states!).

I agree that the welfare of the birds must come first, that goes without saying and isn't in doubt but then again occasionally we don't seem to have much welfare for Canada Geese, Magpie's or Feral Pigeons and the like, it's not their fault they are what they are

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar at 21:08, 2008-08-26

Paul Wilson wrote:

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Dean Macdonald wrote:

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If it was so confiding and easily caught and out of place, then best to play safe before it was got at by dogs/cats/foxes or local ****heads.

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It was no more approachable than the feral pigeons and assorted "Mallard" at Elton yet they are not taken into care. If Judith came round to where I live and took into care every "sad" looking bird that I see, she would never be able to go home.

---

In truth,and with great experience,i personally don't think a shag stranded inland,doing very unatural things can be compared to ferel pigeons,and tame ducks,i trust the judgement of judith,who locally has saved more birds from a disastrous end than anyone .i would have done the same if a shag had walked past me within a couple of feet ,and remember these seabirds often starve as they won't ,apart from cormorants eat anything that swims past them,many live on small herrings or sand eels and out of thier proper enviroment become disorientated.and fade away.

To day the people of Greater Manchester were very busy as i collected

4 pigeons
2 woodpigeons
1 blackbird
2 house martins
1 herring gull that the cat brought in

so paul yes sad birds somehow seem to get collected and lots of people seem to think its the right thing to do. have never really done a year list of birds picked-up might be a new thing for next year, but believe me its more than is neccesary.

As for Master Shag well hes not so good, he is still very angry and has attacked a number of staff he is not ready yet to be released as he is not yet up to optimum weight, so yes he did need care and feeding up.

It has been suggested the best release site will be along the welsh coast.

So right or wrong leave it to mother nature or Judith the bird will be back to sea soon.

keep birding( and put bells on your cats collars)

Playing evil's advocate here (and why not ), is such confiding behaviour so ususual for a Shag, or many other birds? No. A 2005 West Midlands bird made it's temporary residence on an inner city canal and regularly waddled around the towpath right past pedestrians, similarly a Shag in Bradford was staggeringly confiding on a city centre boating lake, none were poorly though (and there are many, many more tales of confiding Shags). What of the north-east UK Baillon's Crake many years ago that stood around poeple's feet on a city centre ornamental pond, The Cuckmere Haven Little Crake that wandered in between poeple's tripods, Lanceolated Warblers on Fair Isle that creep over birder's feet, the list is endless of confiding birds/rarities but none were poorly they simply had no fear of humans probably due to their never having come into contact with them before. So is a confiding nature really a sign for worry of a bird that appears nothing but fit and well?

Wandering around a hayfield certainly isn't usual behaviour for a Shag but considering the bird had stayed alive for 6 days, wandering to and from the reservoir to field, of it's own accord, isn't that it's choice? There's no doubt it could fly (see Paul Wilsons images on the website for proof).

Of course the local plonkers are a cause for concern and especially if they see the attention it's receiving from us birders so I can appreciate that but sometimes (and not necessarily in this instance) should we just let them get on with it unless they're obviously unwell? Nobody snatched the confiding Worthington Lakes Grey Phalarope of several years ago and that died, would things have been different if we had? Taking the Chorlton WP Fulmar into care this year, right or wrong (devil's advocate here remember ). That bird was obviously poorly and confiding for no other reason that it didn't have the energy to get away but either way, Fulmar, Shag, Grey Phal, Ovenbird, whatever species it is, right or wrong, someone has to take that decision and stand by it and I'm glad that isn't me. RSPCA inspectors and county bird recorders, they're the people we look to

This has always has been a difficult situation, When a bird strays out of its natural habitat, I must admit when I heard the bird was still present this morning I went along with my work-stuff in order to catch it, however the bird jumped into the water and appeared to be alright, that said it was a very approachable bird.

My advice to all at the time was keep a close eye on this bird and if we need to then I will take it into care as soon as we could

The area is used alot by fishermen who do not take kindly to any bird that beats them at there own game, and this area as we all know has large amounts of dog walkers etc

It was highly possible that this bird was heading for a bad end, and who would we have blamed then.

As it is the bird is now safe and will be released in a more suitable area, away from dog walkers, foxes and other dangers.

Mike Chorleys comments are very poignant and may make us all think about how and why we go birding.

With the influx of shags in the country then maybe there is another one out there somewhere, I belive someone thought they saw the bird flying to away from Elton today so maybe there is another one out there?

So keep Birding

May I refer anyone who objects to the removal of this bird to a safe place to the Birdwatchers' Code of Conduct.
"1. The interests of the bird come first..."
In my opinion, as someone who does a lot of rescue work, that bird needed to go into care (albeit temporarily) in order to restore it to its natural habitat. In that decision, I was supported by the RSPCA. How it had survived so long, I have no idea.

If it was so confiding and easily caught and out of place, then best to play safe before it was got at by dogs/cats/foxes or local ****heads.

As someone stuck at work both today & Saturday, I can certainly appreciate that people might be disappointed that the shag has been taken in to care (wasn't exactly chuffed when I heard) but if the bird is wandering around as Judith describes then there's a good chance that it won't be here long enough for other birders to see it anyway.

On balance, the bird is better off alive and breeding somewhere than on my list and dead.

Shag; am I the only one who does not understand why the Elton Shag was caught today?. It appeared healthy and apparently was a good weight, so why was it captured depriving other birders of the chance to see it. Just thought I'd pose the question ! Cheers Ian