"Roll up, roll up". Bird ringing at the fair.

All over the country, qualified bird ringers run demonstrations for individuals, groups or anyone coming to a particular site, such as a nature reserve or a farm. These can be fantastic events for engaging non-ringers, highlighting the scientific importance of ringing and explaining what we can learn from monitoring birds.

One of the biggest ringing demonstrations in the country is at Birdfair (17-19 August). Every year, thousands of people stop by to see how ringing works and to view birds close-up, without the need for binoculars.

Guy Anderson showing the crowd

The Birdfair ringing demonstration runs for the duration of the fair (weather permitting) and, if previous years are anything to go by, should provide visitors with views of some great species. Last year, a Sparrowhawk was caught and really drew in the crowds. The more commonly-caught species include Blackcap, Reed and Sedge Warbler and a whole host of tits and finches.

Anyone want to see a Sparrowhawk?

This site, and locations nearby, are usually ringed by the Rutland Water Ringing Group, and this demo helps to increase the effort on the site and adds to the data already collected from their other projects, including their CES.

And if we don't have any birds to ring, we are usually able to 'ring' people with specially-designed rings... If you are going to the fair this year, do come along and find out what it's all about!

How to get up close to a ringer

Gary Clewley writes:

Another year and another Birdfair at Rutland Water has come and gone. The bird ringing demonstration proved to be very popular again with people (and especially families) regularly able to get up close and see the process of ringing first hand. In total, around 175 birds from over 20 species were ringed or recaptured over the course of the weekend. This gave us the opportunity to show people how ringers are able to identify and age birds in the hand as well as explaining why ringing and nest recording are essential for monitoring how and why populations are changing.
 

Great way to get close and learn about our 'British' birds - Stephen McAvoy

Some species do tend to steal the show however, and the Lesser Whitethroats were particularly popular and also quite relevant to this year’s theme at Birdfair; protecting species in the Eastern Mediterranean. With their easterly migration route, there could be a good chance the Lesser Whitethroats which were ringed could be passing through the Eastern Mediterranean soon.

Lesser Whitethroat taken by Morris Rendall

There was a promising start to the event, when at 8:55 am on the Friday morning, the very first bird in the nets was actually a Sparrowhawk! Unfortunately in this case the bird proved too quick for the ringers and managed to free itself within seconds. So it was an especially pleasant surprise when another adult male Sparrowhawk found its way into the nets on the Sunday morning and even better it already had a ring on. This bird was originally ringed at Rutland Water in 2012 and we now know it is still going strong. A very lucky crowd were able to watch the ringers process the bird.

Adult male Sparrowhawk - Dawn Balmer

Sparrowhawk getting efficiently processed while a lucky crowd watch on - Dawn Balmer

Perhaps the most unexpected bird of the weekend was a House Sparrow (and perhaps a sign of the times since this species has seen a substantial decline in recent years) which is the first ever caught during the Birdfair ringing demonstrations.

Unfortunately, we also had our fair share of unfavourable weather over the weekend so there were times when we were unable to safely catch birds. But nonetheless there were ringers on hand to answer questions and even ‘ring’ some people with the wristbands we had available (if you were ringed you can find out your story here).

The ringing demonstration stand. You can tell where the bird is by the crowd - Stephen McAvoy

It is always a privilege to be able to ring birds and even more so at an event like this. It requires a lot of planning and I would just like to thank all those ringers who volunteered their time to help with the demonstration again for all their hard work, in particular the Rutland Water Ringing Group, as well as everyone who came along to see us.

Eds - There are ringing demonstrations run at various sites across the UK by individual ringers or groups however the BTO, in collaboration with the RSPB, are running their next event on Sunday 30 August at the BTO headquarters from 10 am until 3 pm (catching weather dependent).

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!