Land's End LRP in Berks

The persistence of photographer Jerry O'Brien has paid of with these amazing set of images of a ringed Little Ringed Plover (BT02510). The bird has recently returned to a Berkshire site operated by Hadley's Recycling and Waste Management.



Over the last three breeding seasons, local ringers have worked with the company to protect the birds and have adjusted their working programme to accommodate them on more than one occasion.

We presumed this particular bird would have been ringed locally, so it was a surprise to find it had actually been ringed at Land's End, Cornwall, in April 2008! We get very few movements of LRPs, and this is only the 19th movement over 100km.

Boedicia the Tawny Owl disappears at 21!

It can be quite sad when old friends disappear, and none more so than Boedicia the Tawny Owl.

Boedicia was named by BBC Cumbria listeners last year when she was recaught in May at the grand old age of 21 years. That year she still fledged three healthy chicks, and was only a few months short of the national record of 21 years and 5 months (held by a North Yorkshire bird).

Home for Boedicia is Kershope Forest in Cumbria, part of the much larger Kielder Forest, managed by the Forestry Commission. She was originally ringed by BTO ringer Brian Little in April 1987, who recaught her again last spring. Sadly though, after being caught on CCTV in her nest box in September, Boudica hasn't been seen since.


The Tawny Owl project has reported a dreadful year so far though. Over 200 nest boxes are sited around the forest, and up to 115 can be occupied in any one year. Brian and his team monitored 95 nests in the forest in 2008, but so far this year their total is a mere 47! This is almost certainly due to 2009 being a very poor vole year, with the cyclic population of voles being much less predictable in recent years.


The Forestry Commission are holding two owl nights over the summer, open to the public. More details can be found here..

ALL870 returns to Druridge

I never fail to be impressed by migration, but there are some birds that really do impress! One such bird is ALL870, a Willow Warbler residing in Druridge Bay, Northumberland. The site is regularly ringed by Janet Fairclough and Iain Robson and this particular bird was originally ringed (as an adult) in May 2004.

It was then caught in the same patch in 2005, 2006, 2008 and now 2009. This isn't the oldest Willow Warbler we know of; this was a 10 year old bird from Hertfordshire. What is amazing though, is where this bird will have been over those years. Weighing in at less than a pound coin, this bird will have crossed the Sahara at least 12 times!

Thanks to Janet for the story (and photo) and more details, and some great nestling Stonechat photos, can be found on the Druridge blog.

New species - Lime-billed Bullfinch!

Ringing always turns up something odd, and this Bullfinch is no exception. It was caught at Woolston Eyes, Cheshire, yesterday, and showed some very odd colouration indeed. One feather on the forehead, all of the nasal feathing and a couple of wing feathers were white, and the whole bird was generally quite pale in colour. Most striking though was the bill, which was mostly a pale lime colour instead of black! Very odd!


Thanks to Stephen Menzie for the info and photo of this oddity, and for comparison, a normal Bullfinch photo by Jill Pakenham is shown below.

Check before watering!

"The other day we noticed a male Wren singing from one of the hanging baskets right by our back gate. With its tail pumping up and down whilst it sang, we knew it was keen to defend its territory. When the female bird appeared, the male suddenly disappeared inside the basket. Checking the basket a little later, there was a small pile of evicted compost under the basket and a Wren’s nest inside it! What the bird had done was tp create a nest inside the basket, using a flower hanging from one of the holes as a perch. It had then dug out a nest in the compost inside the basket.


Male Wrens build several nests over the spring, and the female selects the best one, so we have no idea if she'll like this particular site. However, it looks like we won’t be watering this hanging basket for a while!"

Thanks to James & Kate Cracknell for this, and for the photos.