Brit abroad causing a stir

The species, or subspecies, of the Redpoll complex has long been something that birders and ringers have debated; the use of new advances in technology, like sonograms and DNA studies, have only fueled the discussions. There are currently three recognised species, Lesser, Common (Mealy) and Arctic Redpoll, with subspecies also acknowledged (depending on which criteria you use). Identification of these species can be difficult; however, ringers are in the privilaged position of being able to collect detailed data on size (wing length) and plumage to help inform the decision.

Since 2010, the average number of Lesser Redpoll ringed by the BTO Ringing Scheme is 21,000 birds per year. The number of these that are later relocated is quite high in comparison to similar species. They have become increasingly common in gardens (as recorded through Garden BirdWatch) possibly due to garden bird feeding; this also offers additional opportunities for ringers to catch these birds.



Colour of location: Ringed in Britain and Ireland, Found Here; Ringed Here, Found in Britain and Ireland

The map above shows the ringing and finding locations for all the Lesser Redpolls that have been ringed or reported in Britain and Ireland. This map will have to be redrawn later this year however, as we have now received details of a bird that had its metal ring read in Spain! During 2017, there were only two sightings of Redpoll in the whole of Spain, so 20 January 2018, when a flock of 15-17 birds turned up, was an exciting day; it was made even more exciting by the fact that one of the birds was wearing a ring!

Adult male Lesser Redpoll. Photo by Jesús Mari Lekuona

Unfortuantely, as the rings on Redpoll are very small, it is very difficult to read the ring number in the field; however, Jesús Mari Lekuona managed to read all but the last number. This narrowed the options down to 10 possible birds, and all of them were Lesser Redpolls of various ages (adult or juvenile), ringed on 14 October 2017 near Cinderford, Gloucestershire by Robin Husbands. As you can see from the photo, this bird is an adult male... and this matched a single bird, ringed at 12.30!

This is the most-southerly recovery of a Lesser Redpoll, although there is a report of a 'Redpoll species' recorded in Portugal (before they were split into three species). In countries where certain species rarely occur, finding a bird with a ring can be really helpful, not only to increase our understanding of bird movements, but also to help validate such an unusual movement.

Thanks to Jesús Mari Lekuona, Ricardo Rodríguez, Jorge Nubla, Oscar Guindano and Jose Ardaiz for getting the ring number and Rare Birds In Spain for letting us know.

Marsh Harriers strike out across Europe

Phil Littler and John Middleton (North West Norfolk Ringing Group) write:

On 5th February 2014, the first live British-ringed Marsh Harrier was sighted in Spain by Javier Elorriaga, along with Yeray Seminario, Juan Martin and Ramon Navarro. The wing-tagged male Marsh Harrier (BN - green pin on map below) was ringed as a nestling in North Norfolk on 3rd August 2013 by the North West Norfolk Ringing Group. This bird was seen at La Janda, near Cadiz, an area of flooded rice fields, which has a high concentration of Marsh Harriers in winter. It was then seen again on 8th February by Geoff Gowlett who sent us the photo below. BN was first seen by Alex Colorado on 9th December 2013 approximately four kilometers from the latest observations.

Male Marsh Harrier BN. The sex was determined using the Dutch foot span measurement method, which this Norfolk project have championed in the UK (c) Geoff Gowlett

Prior to this only two British-ringed Marsh Harriers had been recovered in Spain; one ringed in Lincolnshire and the other in Suffolk, both found dead in 1991.

Subsequently, we received a report of a second Marsh Harrier (LB - red pin on map below) from Suffolk that had been wing-tagged in the same project. It was seen by Juan M Perez-Garcia on 13th Januar 2014 at Parc Natural El Hondo, Spain, a site that is both a RAMSAR site and a Special Protection Area (SPA) for birds.

Previously, on Christmas Day 2012, a report came in of a wing tagged bird near Lisbon, Portugal (AP - yellow pin on map above). This represented the first live sighting of a British-ringed Marsh Harrier in Portugal, and only the second ever recovered there.

AP, a female, was ringed in July 2011 at Sculthorpe Moor, Norfolk, and was seen near Aerodromo de Leziria, a small airfield used for aerial crop spraying of the extensive rice fields in the area. We know this female survived its return migration because in April 2013, she was photographed coming in off the North Sea at Spurn, Humberside.

On 11th December 2013 Green DX, ringed in June 2013 near Haddiscoe, was reported from Belgium by Frank van de Velde who photographed it at De Blankaart Nature Reserve, another first for a British-ringed harrier to Belgium.

DX with it's new wing tags - by Alison Allen

Marsh Harrier DX - by Frank Van de Velde

Unconfirmed, but 99% sure, was a distant sighting in Senegal on 24th January 2013 by a French Ornithologist Jean Francois Blanc who was studying Montagu's Harriers. He saw a green wing-tagged Marsh Harrier who thought that the markings were black OO. This was rather disappointing as OO has not been used but CC has; was it that bird? It would have been the first recovery of a British-ringed Marsh Harrier in Senegal. Jean also observed two Belgian wing-tagged birds.

Not only exciting foreign recoveries were being received, but Marsh Harriers that had been wing tagged in this collaborative project were also being reported from as far as the Loch of Strathbeg near Aberdeen, to the Dale Peninsula in Wales, Burton Mere in Cheshire and the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.

More details about the Norfolk wing tagging project can be found here.

What are the chances?

Lloyd Park from Rutland Water writes:

In June 2011 reserve manager Tim Appleton and I took a walk into the Burley Fishponds to look for signs that Little Egrets might be breeding in this area. We carefully surveyed the area, trying not to disturb any of the Cormorants or herons that also nest within the fishponds, whilst doing our best not to disappear up to our necks in the soft silt that has built up over the years!

After a while I came across a small number of Little Egrets close to some platforms of sticks in the Willow trees, and there sat a small chick on a nest! This was the first confirmed breeding of this species in the county of Rutland - an amazing moment!

Little Egret chick - Jan Pritchard

In anticipation I had brought my ringing kit along. I quickly ascended the tree to the nest and caught the chick, although it did try to give us the slip by beginning to climb away at a fairly fast pace. I then carried it down to the ground where we promptly fitted the bird with a standard British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) metal size ‘G’ ring. Once the ring was fitted I placed the chick back onto the nest and covered the bird over with a cloth to keep it calm. Once I was sure the bird was settled I removed the cloth and climbed down the tree.

Ever since that day I have always looked closely at the Little Egrets on the reserve to see if there was one with a ring of metal around its leg, but I never did see the bird again. Realistically, the chances of ever getting a recovery of the first and only ringed Little Egret at Rutland Water were pretty slim, however…

Little Egret - John Harding

We recently received a number of ringing recoveries and to my surprise a Little Egret was on the report. I assumed that this must be a colour-ringed bird that has been seen at Rutland from elsewhere but amazingly it turned out that the chick we ringed back in 2011 had been found, unfortunately dead, on the shoreline at O Grove, Pontevedra, SPAIN on the 20th November 2013. An amazing movement as I thought that most British Little Egrets were fairly sedentary.

A total of 891days after ringing, this Little Egret had covered a distance of at least 1285km. This is only the eleventh ever recovery of a British-ringed Little Egret abroad and the third found in Spain.

What an amazing story considering it was the only Little Egret chick we have ever ringed!

Hola Common Gull!

Calum Campbell from Grampian Ringing Group writes:

After the continuing success of the large gull colour-ringing project in North-East Scotland, this summer Grampian Ringing Group undertook a new project to cover Black-headed and Common Gulls. One of the main aims of the project is to find out the dispersal and wintering patterns of the chicks from the various colonies in the region. On 30th June this year, we visited an inland colony of 2200 Common Gulls stretching over vast moorland (red pin).

Tillypronie colony - Euan Ferguson

There are very few colonies of such scale left in the UK after large declines in the breeding population. During the single ringing visit we ringed 180 chicks, 150 of which were also colour-ringed. Since ringing, six sightings have come in of Common Gull juveniles dispersing from this colony. Five of them were dotted around the North-East coast, valuable information, but we did get one sighting we did not expect.

Common Gull in Santa Crus de Oleiros - Antonio

A few days ago an email arrived from Sergio Paris, reporting that his friend Antonio had seen and photographed a Common Gull carrying an orange darvic (2XKN) in Santa Cruz de Oleiros, North-West SPAIN (green pin)!

According to the BTO recoveries database up until last year 94,916 Common Gulls had been ringed in the UK and Ireland. Only 1 of these had been recovered in Spain, a bird ringed in Kerry, Ireland in 1957 (blue pin)! Found only 7 miles from this one!


View Common Gull in Spain! in a larger map

This sighting is exceptional for the project and the ringing scheme but with only six sightings we are far from building a clear picture of where the majority of Grampian’s Common Gulls spend the winter. All sightings of all species of gulls are much appreciated and if you are not a ringer, sightings can be reported via ring.ac.

A Greenshank fae Aiberdeen to Ireland to Spain

Raymond Duncan writes:

Over 250 Greenshank have been colour-ringed since 2005 in a joint Grampian/Tay RG project investigating the origins, site fidelity and onward movements of birds on autumn passage through the Ythan Estuary (near Aberdeen) and Montrose Basin, NE Scotland. Ten individuals have been resighted in Ireland and four in Spain.

Look out behind you! YB-LB has been recorded wintering
in NW Spain for the past 6 years. Photo by Antonio Gutierrez

Recent reports of juvenile 'RL: Light green/blue LL: Blue/black' have been particularly interesting not only because of the speed of travel but also because it is our first sighting that confirms some birds visit Ireland before re-orientating south to Spain and beyond for the winter. It was ringed as a juvenile on the Ythan Estuary on 11/09/12.

Dermot Breen then resighted and photographed it (below) 11 days later at Muckrush, Lough Corrib, County Galway, right over near the west coast of Ireland.

LB-BN in Galway, Ireland by Dermot Breen

He prudently commented that he thought the bird was just passing through as Greenshank aren’t too common at this inland site. How correct he was. Five days later Daniel Lopez Velasco resighted and photographed it (below) at Ponteceso Estuary, A. Coruna, NW Spain.

LB-BN in NW Spain by Daniel Lopez Velasco

Thanks very much to both for reporting these sightings. Please keep an eye out for colour-ringed Greenshank where ever you are. Holiday birders have reported colour-ringed birds in Morroco, the Nijer Delta and this regular spring visitor on the Cape Verde Islands.

LB-LO at Santiago on the Cape Verde Islands on 10/3/12 by Danial Mauras

Migrant Movement Magic

With migrants starting to move south, we have received reports of a few interesting recoveries.

David Coker writes:
“We managed to slot in our 12th and final visit to our Constant Effort Site at Much Marcle, Herefordshire yesterday morning.  The highlight was arguably a juvenile Redstart; one ‘already ringed’ juvenile Redstart, with a ring number beginning Y190. This seemed familiar to the team members who were ringing, because we used a few of my rings last week after the usual stock ran out; and those rings started Y190. Yes, I had ringed the Redstart, as a chick, on 9 June, in a nestbox at one of my Pied Flycatcher ringing sites SW of Hereford (31 km W of Much Marcle). The trainee who helped me ring the brood was with us again this morning.”

Redstart - Derek Belsey

More news came from Wilf Norman (South Cleveland Ringing Group) who was catching breeding Nightjar in a local forest. Amazingly he caught a male wearing a foreign ring! We have had very few recoveries abroad: BTO birds being found in Algeria (1), France (10), Morocco (2), The Netherlands (1) and Spain (1). Nightjar with foreign rings found in this country are much fewer in number, with the total being … Spain (1).  Now this has been doubled, Spain stand at two. The first Spanish ringed Nightjar was caught only 20 miles from this Nightjar capture, so the North York Moors have 'cornered the market' for Spanish ringed birds.

Nightjar- Derek Belsey

Thanks to David Coker and Wilf Norman for letting us know.

Just nipping to Spain

In 2010 our ringing scheme ringed 2,331 Redshank and lots of these birds have gone on to be seen or recovered in other countries. Foreign ringed Redshank are found less frequently in this country. Click here to see recovery reports in more detail.

Redshank, 3M009051, was ringed and colour ringed on 13th February 2011 as a juvenile at Fianteira, Sanxenxo, Spain (42'27N 8'50W), (blue pin). This bird was seen at this location up to the 20th March and was then reported to us being seen alive at Seaforth Nature Reserve, Liverpool (red pin) on 27th April (1296km). This is the first Spanish ringed Redshank to be recorded in the UK!

View 1st Spanish ringed Redshank in a larger map

Interestingly it was then seen very close to where it was colour ringed on 29th July (green pin). This bird must have been wintering in Spain and recorded on its migration north to breed. There has been quite a lot of movement of birds between the UK and Iceland to the north, and the UK and France to the south but very little further south than this.

Thanks to Richard du Feu for letting us know about this.

Mystery Puffin Deaths in Spain

During the last couple of weeks, the north coast of Spain has been dotted with dead Puffins. Up until last weekend a total of 72 birds had been found.
The puffin is a pelagic species of auk which spends its winter in the middle of the Atlantic and North Sea, where it is vulnerable to oil spills and bioaccumulation of heavy metals.

Sadly this morning, we received a report of one of these dead Puffins, found on a beach near Gijón wearing a BTO ring! We discovered that it was ringed as an adult in July 2009 on the Shiant Islands in the Western Isles of Scotland.



We don't know where this bird spent the winter or where it exactly died because it would have been brought to the coast on the oceanic currents.


View Puffin EW81339 in a larger map

We hope to hear again from the finders if they discover the cause of death after the postmortem.

Thank you to Marco García for sharing the story and to José Antonio Larriba for the photographs.

Having 'Common' in your name doesn't mean you're well known

Some waders are notoriously difficult to catch but the Borders Ringing Group seem to have cracked it by following the fine examples set by Derek Yalden and Phil Holland in the Peak District, Ian Poxton in the Pentlands, and Bruce Lynch in the Angus Glens. So much so that they have been able to colour ring birds and give the opportunity for others to take part in tracking their movements.

Common Sandpiper NW05591 was ringed on 2nd May 2004 near The Ley, Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders and seen again at the same site on 26 April 2006, 28 April 2007 and 31 May 2008. No one knows where this bird has wintered exactly and this bird was not seen again until a ringer from the Spanish Ringing Scheme caught her on 17 April 2010 at Delta del Llobregat, where she was probably on her way back to Scotland.


View Common Sandpiper in a larger map

This is the group's first report of one of their Common Sandpipers being seen abroad. As more birds are colour ringed hopefully things will become clearer about their migration route.

Thanks to Tom Dougall for letting us know and Ray Murray for the picture.