DemOn in DM out

Dorian Moss is retiring from the BTO as Ringing Database Officer today.


It is best to smile when you are at work!

He joined the team in May 2008, particularly so as to draw up the specifications for the new ringing database, and was one of the team bringing this to fruition in 2014. He has been one of the five staff managing ringing data and recoveries for the past 8 years. From 2008 to 2014 he had the main responsibility for final checks on recoveries and moving them to the permanent database and sending them out to ringers and finders. Then in June 2014 the new database went live, and Dorian started to concentrate on managing the vast resource of ringing data input by our volunteer John Bonell.

Dorian in his favourite habitat, the ringing schedules store at The Nunnery

Since we have been using the new database, Dorian has taken a special interest in checking out new ringing sites, making sure that the grid references and coordinates are correct by checking on maps and Google Earth. Ringers may well have received enquiries from him when things didn’t look correct.

We wish him well in his retirement and look forward to seeing him out collecting valuable ringing data in due course, now he has all this time on his hands. However he is a glutton for punishment, and he has agreed to take over the (unpaid) role of EURING Databank Manager from Chris du Feu in 2017. So he will keep his brain working and we will still have contact with him.

CES ringers finally get a lie-in

Greg Conway writes:

As the breeding season draws to a close, so the hundreds of dedicated ringers who run the 120 Constant Effort Sites (CES) scattered across Britain and Ireland can start to relax and recuperate after a summer of early morning starts. As they use the same mist nets in the same places each year to catch the birds, the information they collect tells us about changes in numbers of adults and juveniles over time, so abundance, breeding success and survival can all be measured, making this one of the most valuable ringing projects.

Target species include many of our long-distance migrants (e.g. Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Garden Warbler, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler) plus resident scrub species such as Wren, Dunnock, Blackbird and Robin.

The CES scheme started in 1983, so ringers have just completed the 29th season and will soon be focussing their attention on getting all their data to BTO HQ ready for analysis. The results of the most recent CES analysis can be found on the species pages here and the preliminary results from 2011 will be available later in the autumn. These will provide the first indications of abundance and breeding success of birds nesting this summer, helping to assess the potential impact of yet another harsh winter.

Early indications suggest that a number of migrant species have returned in greater than usual numbers. However, despite an early start to the breeding for many species, prolonged periods of cool and wet weather, particularly in the north and west of Britain and Ireland, were associated reduced breeding productivity levels.

A big thank you to everyone whole has help with CES this year and those ringers who have already submitted their data.

Thanks to Dorian Moss for the above picture of Lucy Yates and Kate Risely for the top picture of Nick Moran.