Foreign Avocet still breeding in Suffolk

Avocet movements are very interesting to monitor as there as been quite a bit of exchange between birds on the continent and the UK. Mike Marsh saw the colour ringed bird (below) at Orfordness, Suffolk wearing only a yellow colour ring and a metal ring. He tried to trace this bird from the colour rings but to no avail. He later managed to read the ring number which was easily traceable.


Avocet 5239200 was ringed as a chick in the Beltringharder Koog, on the German north sea coast on 20th June 1992, making this bird 18 years old and a possible longevity record! This bird had also been colour ringed but had since lost a black, red and green ring, which is why he couldn't trace the bird via the colour rings.

After being seen several times around its natal site up to the 14th July 1992 it was next seen in May and June 1996 at Minsmere and now, thanks to Mike Marsh at Orfordness, Suffolk where it has one small chick to look after. Unfortunately we don't know where it spent the intervening 14 years.


View Avocet leaves home in a larger map

Thanks to Mike Marsh for letting us know about this bird and also to David Crawshaw for the photo.

Which bird is now widespread after 15 years of breeding in Britain?

Little Egret ringing is a recent phenomenon in this country and Jez Blackburn has been helping improve our knowledge of this species by ringing chicks in Norfolk. He reports on the current situation below.


Monitoring of this Little Egret colony in Norfolk started in 2007 with 19 nests counted. This increased to 28 in 2008 but then dropped to 17 in 2009. This year 24 active nests have been recorded. 27 chicks have been ringed so far from 8 nests and in the other nests had chicks that were too small for ringing or on eggs. All birds have been individually colour ringed and this is showing some interesting movements with two birds ringed in 2009 that were found in France and Spain last winter, presumed to be cold weather movements. On average 10% of the birds marked have been sighted away from the colony.

If you monitor a Heronry, keep an eye out for Little Egrets as they tend to breed in the same or adjacent trees. However they are not obvious (even though they a large white bird!) unless you are in the colony and generally nest later than the Herons. If you are a ringer and can safely access the nests for ringing please contact Richard Hearn (littleegrets@yahoo.co.uk) the co-ordinator, about the use of colour rings. Even if you can't get access to ring the chicks remember to nest record the details and submit these (along with the Heron data) via IPMR. Don't forget also that annual counts of apparently occupied nests of egrets and herons are needed for all heronries for the BTO Heronries Census (now in its 83rd year!), at herons@bto.org.

Posted on behalf of Jez Blackburn and photos by Dorian Moss of Little Egrets and Rachael Portnall

Backyard Breeders

Every year, the BTO receive many records of birds nesting in our gardens. Many of these nest records are from your typical garden species such as Blue Tits in nest boxes and Blackbirds in garden shrubs. However, once in a while our gardens can surprise us.

For example, sometimes our garden birds can nest in the most peculiar of places. Last week, a Cambridge student found a Blackbird nesting in their bike basket! Three chicks have since hatched and hopefully they will fledge successfully.



Additionally, gardens can provide excellent nesting habitat for the rarer garden breeders. Last week in Lancaster, a local resident found a Chiffchaff nest embedded in some weeping sedge underneath a holly hedge in their back garden!



So it just goes to show that nests can pop up anywhere and sometimes where you least expect it! Why not keep your eyes peeled for nesting activity in your garden? You never know what might turn up on your doorstep!

Thanks to Emily Scragg for the Blackbird photo and Elisabeth Shakespeare for the Chiffchaff nest photo.

Osprey refuels in Greater Manchester

You know when summer is well on its way, when you see your first Osprey of the year. Osprey 'VE' or 1408005 to its friends, has been seen fishing in the Greater Manchester area around Abram (SD6001) and the Dover Basin (SD6100) from 15th to at least the 19th May and was giving very good views while it caught Trout.


Osprey 'VE' was ringed as a chick near Kirriemuir, Angus on 28th June 2007 and it was here that it was colour ringed. Amazingly 'VE' has not been seen since it was ringed, even though this bird has probably travelled in the region of 17,800km (11,100m) on its migrations to and from West Africa!

If you see this or any other colour ringed bird you can report your sighting via www.ring.ac.

Photo by Hugh Insley

Hawfinch prolific

The Hawfinch "catching season" is short - late March to early May. I have been very pleased with my efforts over the last 7 years and some 200 birds ringed, but this season has been really exceptional. With the help of Adrian Thomas and Rob Husbands, the three of us have managed to catch Hawfinch at seven different feeding sites in the Forest of Dean and lower Wye Valley.

In total 228 birds ringed, 37 recaptured from previous years, 74 same season retraps and 1 foreign control (from Norway). Because of the number of sites in operation this year, we have had our first same season movements, showing that a proportion of the population is very mobile in the month leading up to breeding, with movements of up to 20 km. One such bird, ringed on 26th March was photographed by Lewis Thompson 10 km away on 6th April.

Posted on behalf of Jerry Lewis, Photo by Lewis Thomson