"My Precious" Cormorant

BirdTrack's own Nick Moran writes:

The BTO Nunnery Lakes reserve boasts an imaginatively nicknamed ‘Cormorant Tree’, a favoured perching site of…you guessed it…Cormorants. On 23 October 2015, I pointed my new-to-me bridge camera at a metal-ringed Cormorant I’d noticed in said tree. Reviewing the images, I was pleased to see that the first two digits were clearly visible as ‘25’ and the third looked likely to be ‘2’. Not having much experience of L rings, I showed the photos to Lee Barber. The shape and size of the ring and proportionally very large numbering meant he instantly recognised it as not being a BTO ring. Game on!

Numbers 252 confirmed. Taken 23/10/2015

I became Gollum for a week, consumed with an unrelenting obsession to ‘possess’ the One Ring.  And what more appropriate beast to be bearing it than a real life Nazgûl-bird?! Fortunately for me, the wearer of my preciousss was considerably tamer than the other Cormorants, allowing relatively close approach. However, the Cormorant Tree stands right on the bank of the Little Ouse, making it impossible to walk round and unlike the real Gollum, dark, cold and dirty water is not my thing. The only option was to approach from opposite sides of the river on successive visits, striving to see and photograph the ring from all angles.


Through the tree hole. Taken 26/10/2015

Looking fine for (252)39. Taken 27/10/2015





Final digit falls (25239)4. Taken 27/10/2015

By 27 October, after an awful lot of ‘here we go round the Cormorant Tree’, I’d managed to piece together 252394 and the address: Helgoland, Germany. After submitting the sighting to the BTO, the ringing details have just arrived. The bird was ringed as a chick in Wasservogelreservat Wallnau, Fehmarn, Germany on 11 June 2009. Surprisingly, it is only the eighth German-ringed Cormorant to be controlled in Britain & Ireland at the time of writing!


Confirmation of the Ringing Scheme. Taken 27/10/2015

Like all good stories, there was an unexpected twist: whilst clearing some photos from my old smartphone, I came across a ‘phonescoped’ shot I’d taken of a metal-ringed Cormorant on the same branch of the same tree…on 31 October 2014! The digits ‘25’ were once again clear to see, and close comparison of the bill and facial skin confirm it to be the same individual.



A Stirling Recovery

Most of our recoveries that come from people, other than ringers, are mostly submitted to us via the Euring website. We do still receive a few phone calls however, and every now and then the recovery they are reporting is quite unusual.

I recently had a call from a lady who found a little bird in her garden in Bridge of Allan, Stirling (blue pin (behind the red pin) on map). She wasn't sure what this bird was but thanks to the ring number it all became clear. It was a Bullfinch that had recently died near her garden shed.

Female Bullfinch by Ms McGibbon

Bullfinch don't generally move very far, apart from a few Northern Bullfinches that come into the country from Scandanavia during the winter. These are notably larger than our British Bullfinch.The amazing thing about this bird was that it was ringed in December 2011 on our nature reserve here at BTO HQ (purple pin). Remarkably the finding place is just over 1km from the BTO Scotland office in Stirling (red pin)! At a distance of 517km it is the furthest movement of a Bullfinch ever recorded within the UK or Ireland. There are two birds that have travelled further than this but these are Northern Bullfinches which went to and from Sweden!


View Bullfinch recovery in a larger map

Thanks to Ms McGibbon for letting us know and for providing the photo.

Eggs not made of Chocolate

Nest recording is in full swing here at the Nunnery. The main species being recorded are Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock and Song Thrush, the latter of which are being found in very healthy numbers. Mallard are also very busy with the number of eggs varying from 8 to 23!

A nice brood of healthy Blackbirds were ringed by Rachael this morning, below.


We don't usually receive many nest records for Crossbill, a species that can nest as high as 20 metres up in trees. As well as being difficult to monitor, Crossbill nests are specially protected, so recorders must obtain a Schedule 1 Licence before looking for them.

Five nest records were collected for Crossbill last year, and the highest annual total ever was 15 records in 1985! This year, however, Mark Lawrence and Sorby Breck Ringing Group that they have already found and completed records for ten nests between them!


Thanks to Mark Lawrence for the picture of the Crossbill nest.