Ringers Report - October 2015

A monthly roundup of ringing highlights from young birders, whether it be birds ringed, rings read or controlled in the field or ringing recoveries reported from elsewhere. Bird movements are amazing!

Tim Jones, 24 - Spurn Bird Obs, East Yorkshire
Magical Spurn in mid-October, we struck gold on the 12th October during a morning's ringing at Kew. It started well with a steady flow of Goldcrests then a Radde's Warbler dropped into one of the nets, just a few hours later a Red-flanked Bluetail appeared on the fence in front of me! It gave other birders the run around before it was chased into the Heligoland trap by a Robin, a stunning 1w(3) female, (pointed tail shape and lack of blue in lesser coverts and duller blue-tail) a morning not to be forgotten and we finished on a 2-day total of 485 Goldcrests!

Espen Quinto-Ashman, 18 - North Ronaldsay Bird Obs, Scotland
The month got off to a great start with a surprise ringing tick of a juvenile Storm Petrel. Throughout the month, numbers were provided by falls of Redwing (early on mostly consisting of the paler Scandi/Russian race Iliacus and later in the month the darker Icelandic race Corburni), Blackbird and Goldcrest. Some of the more interesting species ringed included 2 Ring Ouzel, a Siberian Chiffchaff, Bramblings, a Yellow-browed Warbler and even a juvenile Gannet!

Daniel Wade, 2 - Getteröns Fågelstation, Sweden

I have been at Getteröns fågelstation in Varberg, Sweden for the duration of October as the resident ringer for the observatory.I ringed for 28 days out of 31 (the 3 days off due to bad weather) and captured 2405 birds of which I ringed 1600, which is officially my most productive month as a bird ringer to date. A fantastic site, with nets in reed bed and more traditional berry filled cover. 948 Robins, 356 Blackcap and 238 Chiffchaff have been ringed in October (the top 3 species for this month). A full report will be made once I have returned to England. Below: Twite and Arctic Redpoll

Dan Rouse - Bury Inlet, Swansea
October was the annual Oystercatcher catch on the Bury. A team of 7 of us set the cannon nets out the night before and were aiming of a catch of around 100-150, once we fired and raced down it was evident that we had underestimated the number. 504 birds later and all were ringed! A number of birds were first ringed before I was even born making them atleast 20 years old, A retrap from the SCAN ringing group up in North Wales which was a funny surprise, a bird from the 1960's and a control bird from Sweden! 
Full report here

Ringing Recoveries

Zac Hinchcliffe, 23

A Lesser Redpoll ringed on Bangor Mountain, Wales has been caught in Romsey, Hampshire. 307km away and 732 days since ringed.

Tim Jones, 24

A flock of Barnacle Geese rested on the beach at Spurn Bird Obs. 2 out of a flock of 97 had darvic rings on from Svalbard, 1 from 2004!