Meds, Reds and Rockits

The BTO ringing recoveries team are in daily contact with other ringing schemes all over Europe and occasionally even America or Africa. European ringing schemes are part of EURING, which is the coordinating organisation for European bird ringing schemes and strives to coordinate and maintain good quality data and research for the benefit of wild birds.

Part of the EURING protocol is for member schemes to use a standard set of codes when referring to birds that have been ringed or recovered. The data can then be more easily shared and understood by other ringing schemes. In the autumn, contact between the ringing schemes increases as migratory birds cross borders and seas; many foreign-ringed birds are found in Britain or Ireland as well as BTO-ringed birds being found abroad.

Looking at recent records (from October until the time of writing), there have been quite a few reports of foreign-ringed birds reaching our shores. Mediterranean Gulls from Poland are becoming a regular occurrence, with eight individuals reported since October. Other recently seen Mediterranean Gull were originally ringed in Belgium, France, Denmark and Hungary.

Ringed, colour ringed and unringed Mediterranean Gulls. Photo taken by Dawn Balmer

A sighting on 2 October of a Norwegian Little Stint on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides was really exciting, so too was a Peregrine from Finland which was seen in Norfolk.

The recovery rate for Redwing is very low, but recently there has been a scattering of interesting recoveries, as the birds start to arrive here en masse with the cold northerly air flow. A Redwing wearing a Finnish ring was caught at Wolverhampton Racecourse in early November. Another Redwing was found freshly dead after hitting a window at Charlestown of Arberlour, Moray on 24 October after being ringed 387 days previously at Akureyri, Nordur, Iceland. The most outstanding report was a Redwing which was caught at Rhostryfan, Gwynedd, Wales wearing a ring from the Czech Republic on 31 October. This bird was ringed on 10 November 2014 at Olomoucky Kraj 1,508 km away!

Redwing with a lot to eat. Photo taken by Tom Wallis

On 6 November, a non-ringer reported that a Greenfinch had hit their window at Hoddesdon, Hertford; unfortunately it didn't survive. This bird was wearing a ring that was put on in The Netherlands and if the species is confirmed, this would be the 10th record of a Greenfinch from there being reported here.

A juvenile Norwegian Rock Pipit was caught at Poole Harbour, Dorest on 3 November. It was ringed (and colour ringed) at Maletangen, More og Romsdal (1,464 km). This is one of seven Rock Pipits to be reported to us since October, all of which were colour ring sightings apart from this recapture and a bird hitting a window in Whitburn, Tyne and Wear. More information on the recoveries can be found on the Online ringing reports page.


The Norwegian Rock Pipit. Photo taken by Shaun Robson

As you can see from this round up, we are receiving lots of reports of birds ringed in more northerly countries, but we will soon also be getting records from our more southerly ringing scheme colleagues of 'our' birds that have been seen or caught whilst moving further south for winter.



Fire with red and yellow

It has been an exciting time in the Demography team over the past month, with data and news arriving in earnest. In terms of bird migration, the winds were coming from the east, bringing rare birds with them to our shores, as described in the BTO Bird Migration Blog.

Yellow-browed Warbler featured very highly last month, with another bumper year, see BirdTrack reporting rate graph below. At the beginning of October, Fair Isle Bird Observatory counted 72 and Cape Clear Bird Observatory managed to ring its 60th Yellow-brow of the autumn. West Cornwall Ringing Group have also been doing very well for this species with 56 ringed so far this autumn.

The Online Ringing and Nest Recording Report shows recoveries for Yellow-browed Warbler are few and far between, with exchanges only occurring between Britain and Ireland and the Channel Islands, Norway and the Netherlands. This year however, we have heard that one was caught at Brownstown Head, Ireland wearing a Russian ring! Hopefully we will get all the data soon.



Yellow-browed Warbler, taken by Lee Barber

Another autumn visitor is the Firecrest and we have just received the ringing details of a Firecrest recaptured a few years ago by the Teifi Ringing Group wearing a Belgium ring. This bird had travelled 566 km in two months and 10 days.

Whilst migration of small passerines is starting to reduce, thoughts now move to the influx of winter birds such as thrushes and Waxwings. Redwing in particular have been arriving in large numbers, and some ringers are getting close to 1,000 birds ringed this autumn. We will have to wait and see if our 2016 ringing total for Redwing beats the 11,743 ringed in 2015, but it is looking good so far.

Norwegian Blue Tit update!

We have just heard from our colleagues of the Norwegian Ringing Scheme with an update of the Blue Tit wearing a Norwegian ring that was previously posted.

The first-year Blue Tit was ringed at Lista Bird Observatory, Farsund, Vest-Agder (58'06N, 06'34E) on October 5th. This bird was then caught 9 days later in Lerwick fit and well.


View NOS Blue Tit in a larger map

Alf Tore Mjös writes:
2012 has been another “big year” for Blue Tits in Scandinavia. Many have left the coastline and turned up on the remote island of Utsira 20 km off the west coast, including quite a few ringed at Lista Bird Observatory and Revtangen Bird Observatory. The usual movement of Blue Tits in southern Norway is along the coast from east towards west and then northwest to north.

Fair Isle Bird Observatory has also reported a Blue Tit in a garden while hoping for a Rubythroat. The warden writes on their blog "The last Fair Isle record of a Blue Tit was back on 1st January 1989, there have actually been 3 Rubythroats (including this years) on the island since this commonplace UK garden resident."

Thanks again for David Okill for letting us know and our colleagues in Norway.

Norwegian ringed Blue Tit in Shetland

Dave Okill writes:

Autumn in Shetland brings falls of continental migrants on south-easterly winds and the end of the second week in October 2012 brought large numbers of Redwings with smaller numbers of Goldcrests, Blackbirds and Bramblings into the Isles. Reports of more uncommon birds were scattered over the next few days and included Olive-backed Pipits into double figures, a Treecreeper and unbelievably a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Scotland's first authenticated record.

On the 14th October, an Olive-backed Pipit and a Great Tit were found in a mature wooded garden on the edge of Lerwick. These were joined on the 16th by a Blue Tit which was seen to be ringed with a 'chunky' silver ring. Permission was obtained by members of the Shetland Ringing Group and on the next day the Great Tit and Blue Tit were caught. The ring on the Blue Tit proved to be from the Norwegian ringing scheme.

Blue Tits are very scarce late autumn migrants in the Northern Isles and they do occasionally over winter; in the exceptional year of 1988 at least 40 were recorded but in many years there are no reports, so a ringed bird in the Northern Isles is very unusual.

There have been a number of previous ringing recoveries of Blue Tits to and from the continent but
these have nearly all been from south-east England especially along the channel coast. There have
been 9 foreign birds recovered in England and 10 British ringed birds recovered abroad. The single
Blue Tit recovered from Norway was at Felixstowe, Suffolk. It is possible that some of these birds
moving across the channel could have been ship assisted, but difficult to prove.

We await the ringing details from Norway with interest.

Thanks to Ray Johnston for the photo

Recoveries in June

The processing of ringing recoveries in the demography team have been going very well recently. We've had lots of reports almost ready to send out to ringers and finders.

We thought it would be good idea to give you a taster of these (possibly unchecked).

Lesser Whitethroat Y60214 (blue pin) was ringed at Eilat Ringing Station, Israel on 10 March 2009 and was caught by ringers at Heysham Bird Observatory, Lancs on 12 June 2011 (1791km).

Starling LC14381 (red pin) was ringed on 29 Jan 2010 near Upton Magna, Shropshire was unfortunately killed by a cat in Minsk, Russia on 22 June 2011 (2022km).

A Redwing RT32238 (green pin) didn't do much better, after being ringed at Theddlethorpe St Helen, Lincolnshire on 15 October 2009 and hitting a window in Outokumpu, Finland on 4 June 2011 (1976km).

Sandwich Tern DK31758 (yellow pin) had its ring number read, probably while roosting. This bird was ringed at Sands of Forvie NNR, Newburgh on 30 May 2008 and was seen at Foce Isonzo, Staranzano, Italy on 5 June 2011 (1662km).


View June recoveries in a larger map

Other birds of note were a Hobby ringed in Powys seen at Minsmere, Suffolk (325km) and a Great Spotted Woodpecker found dead in a Squirrel trap.