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!

Ringers Report- September 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!

Craig Reed, 20 - Staffordshire

"September provided to be a good month attempting to net some lingering summer migrants left at our sites in Staffordshire. Reed Warblers, Blackcap and Chiffchaff provided the bulk but a couple of late(ish) Willow Warblers was a nice surprise. A number of Swallows were caught on one evening session and a ringing demonstration provided very productive with a feeding station been netted for the first time this autumn, and resulting in a large number of 'new' finches and tit species. The demo also included my first Stock Dove, a species that often seems to avoid the nets despite having decent populations at a number of our sites!"

Dan Rouse - Gower, Swansea

"September meant the BTO Cymru ringing course was brought to our Oxwich site. Throughout the course we had a number of good species including Stonechat, Whinchat, Swallow and plenty of finches. After the course, our usual sessions continued and some unexpected birds turned up which got everyone excited, these included Lesser Redpoll, Kingfisher and Skylark! Skylarks aren't too common on the site, though annual, but still a species I love seeing! We set up our pipit triangle with tape which resulted in 70+ Mipits and c10 Tree Pipits, we noticed there were wagtails going to roost at the bottom of one of our nets so the tape was played and 5 White Wagtails made an appearance!"

Tim Jones, 23 - Spurn Bird Obs, East Yorkshire

"A stunning juvenile Little Ringed Plover was only the 6th ringed at the observatory, a dusky juvenile House Martin was 'interesting' as was an influx of probable continental Dunnocks with big wings and white belly patches while ringing with Zac Hinchcliffe. September also brought some drift migrants including a Red-backed Shrike, Barred Warbler, several Redstarts and a Tree Pipit"

dark-rumped House Martin

probable conti Dunnock

Ringers Report - August 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!

Josie Hewitt, 17 - Hampshire

My August ringing highlight was my first ever ringing session on my patch in north east Hampshire where I caught a surprising total of 59 birds of 13 species in just two nets. This included a lovely juvenile Pied Flycatcher which was most unexpected and a Lesser Whitethroat, also a fairly unusual visitor! I also visited 3 bird observatories - Skokholm, Portland and Bardsey where I had a lovely time and saw some cracking species in the hand including Storm Petrel, Manx Shearwater, Lesser Black-backed Gull and Dunlin. 

                                               

Jonnie Fisk, 19 - Pasvik Valley, Finnmark, Arctic Norway 
The Pasvik ringing project is a joint venture between Biotope, ringing groups in Staffordshire and Worcestershire and Stavanger Museum.
A ringing scheme has been in place in Varanger for the last few years. Previously, all ringing was done at the coastal site of Nesseby, this year it was moved to the Pasik taiga forest, on the border river with Russia, a minor flyway for migrants. We caught a nice range of migrant species, Willow Warblers making up the bulk - there was massive variation between these acredula types. The project also caught several taiga forest specialities including loenbergi Williw Tits, Siberian Tits, Siberian Jay, Little Bunting and one livid Hawk Owl. Padding the nets out were some good Scandi stuff: Brambling, Arctic and Mealy 'polls, thunbergi Yellow Wagtails, Bluethroat and Redwing. 
Waiting between net rounds on the river was a opportunity to view Arctic migration, with Crane every day, whinneying Whimbrel flocks, fishing Osprey, Rough-legged Buzzards, White-tailed Eagles and moose commuting to and from Russia. Over the two weeks upwards of a hundred birds we ringed per day and hopefully they'll give some interesting recoveries, painting a better picture of the routes these Arctic breeders take.

acredula "Northern" Willow Warbler on the right

Sophie Barrel - Skokholm Bird Observatory, Wales

The NGB team at Skokholm island were lucky enough to be involved in some ringing with the Teifi Ringing Group and the wardens. Although the week wasn’t great for bird numbers, we still got a mix of Meadow Pipits, Rock Pipits, Reed Warblers, Whitethroats, Reed Buntings, Robins, Swallows and Goldcrests. In addition, one morning we got a bang on the door early morning where we were shown a Lesser Whitethroat that had been caught, which was particularly rare to get on the island.

Of course, the main personal reason for the visit was to get close and personal to seabirds that cover the island. Manx Shearwaters were a ringing lifer for myself and other ringers on the trip. Storm Petrels were also a treat to ring, although only 6 were caught on the last night. Overall it was a great trip and I hope to get involved in more ringing with bird observatories in the future. 

Dan Rouse, 18 - Bardsey Bird Observatory, Wales

Whilst the six other NGB members were on Skokholm, 8 of us were on Bardsey Isalnd. There was four of us who were ringers (plus Bardsey Ben) and we had the pleasure of ringing in a variety of ways including mist netting, Heligoland traps and ringing pulli. Highlights of the trip was my first Spotted Flycatcher and ringing on the beach with Ben resulting in a Dunlin for Josie, Redshank for myself and plenty of Rock Pipits which we got to colour ring. Other highlights included Storm Petrels, which smell amazing! The countless Manx Shearwater pulli took some work to get them out of the burrows in order to ring.

Ringers Report - July 2015

Ringers Report - July

Kieran Lawrence, 19 - Whitburn CP, Durham

July 1st saw the start to my 2 month storm-petrel ringing season, ringing each night at Whitburn CP, Durham with help from NGB Daniel McGibbon and ex-NGB Tom Middleton. By the end of the month we had amassed a respectable 126 new birds and 3 controls, 1 of which having been caught at Eyemouth the precious year but yet to find out about the other 2! During this time an NGB trip was organised giving around a dozen NGBs the chance to experience these amazing seabirds up close, all of which who were ringers being able to ring one themselves.

The grounds of the National Trust Souter Lighthouse contain a Wildlife Garden with a feeding station. This along with the erection of around 100 nest boxes have seen a boom in the population of Tree Sparrow. We were therefore able to put up a single 20' net next to the feeding station every so often. Tree Sparrows, as you might expect, made up most of the catch, along with multiple Blue Tits, Great Tits, Goldfinch and Greenfinch.

However my stand out bird of the month, by far, came in shape of a Leach's Petrel trapped and ringed on the night of the 29th at 11:30pm, just 1 hour into Tom's first 'stormie' session! I've seen multiple Leach's, including one in the hand at Whitburn in 2013, and even had the privilege of ringing 3 myself on Fair Isle during 2013 but to catch one myself , during my own project, on patch was just amazing. It certainly got me in a sweat and Tom even thought I was going to have a heart attack!
Roll on August!

Sophie Barrell - South-west Lancashire

I haven’t been ringing recently due to moving for work but had some excellent opportunities to ring some great birds this summer. Firstly, my trainer found this young tawny owl at the side of the road who had fledged a week too early, which I was lucky enough to ring. It was placed back up in a tree near where it was found.

We’ve also been ringing kestrel chicks; one nest with five chicks and another with three. Unfortunately many of the previously occupied kestrel and barn owl boxes were taken over by Jackdaws and Stock Doves this year. Barn Owls in particular are having a very late breeding season. However in one of the boxes we checked (with a cherry picker!) we managed to catch 2 fully grown adults which was a treat to ring.

We’ve also been concentrating on our RAS on Blackcaps and Swallows, and I believe the re-trap rates are quite high so far.  

 Amy Robjohns - Titchfield Haven, Hampshire

Ringing at Titchfield Haven got off to a slow start in July, with totals struggling to reach 50 birds – a sign that the migration is delayed. What’s more, only one grasshopper warbler was trapped and ringed over the month, which is unusual. Unusually for me, I only managed to attend one ringing session in July, but the personal highlight for me were two Bearded Tits; a species I’d not ringed at Titchfield Haven before.

Josie Hewitt, 17 - Skomer Island, Wales

Josie is currently on another Welsh island at the moment. She had previously travelled to Skomer island which is off the Pembrokeshire coast for a week of ringing,  I can safely say that Josie had an amazing time and ringed so many adorable birds! These were mainly young birds and the species being plenty of gulls, Razorbills, Manx Shearwater and of course the cutest of all.. Puffin!

Dan Rouse, 18 - West Glamorgan

After proving my worth by fixing all the nets, I have been approved to ring on one of the group's CES sites. This proved to be an amazing opportunity for me when two juv Kingfishers flew into one of the nets! Yes, okay we are in the wooded area of the reserve but these two were lucky to fly into our net, myself and another member of the group had one each and they were just the most amazing birds to see up close.

I was kindly invited to go ringing with one of the group's A ringers to his site. This area is known for getting regular Green Woodpeckers and Spotted Flycatchers and those were the birds we were hoping for that morning. Being a very windy day the swallows were flying very low to the ground but still managing to avoid every net, but after checking the "hide" a few weeks before, we knew there was at least a Swallow chick that we could ring. Myself and my trainer made our way up the hide to check the nest and found not one, but two Swallow chicks sitting in their nest. We quickly ringed the little ones and popped them back in since the adult was diving in and out of the hide clearly not happy with us. 

Ringers Report June 2015

Ringers Report, June 2015

Dan Rouse - A Rocha Bird Observatory, Portugal

Been a great week out in Portugal at the observatory, despite having gone to Portugal a number of times it was only this time did I actually do some ringing. The heat was the biggest issue of the day, the first bird pulled out the bag was a Juv House Sparrow and the birds continued to be less interested until there was one bag left, one of my favourite birds of Portugal: Azure Winged Magpie! As much as I love them, they don't half hurt when they get you good. More common birds continued to fill the nets until a Sardinian Warbler flew into the net in front of me and then a Short-Toed Treecreeper were both major highlights for me!

Zac Hinchcliffe & Jonnie Fisk - Spurn Bird Observatory 

Jonnie Fisk had the pleasure of ringing a Marsh Warbler at Spurn. Zac, having managed to avoid them so far controlled a Sparrow Hawk which was first ringed at MigFest at Spurn the year before.

Josie Hewitt - Hampshire

In my garden, June saw the arrival of lots of fledged Starlings. I hadn't really done many Starlings before now so my aim was to catch and ring as many as I could. Using one potter trap over 3 weeks in June I managed to trap 26 Starlings, both adults and juveniles. I think their eyes are fascinating and there is so much variation with them that I decided to take some photos so that if I re-trap any of them as adults then I can see if the iris colour is any indication of sex. I decided to do this because I have been told conflicting things by different people as to whether you can or cannot sex juvenile Starlings based on iris colour. Hopefully I'll re-trap some of the birds once they've done their post juvenile moult and so I can use other criteria to try and sex them.