Getting more from your birding

Here at the BTO we engage with countless local birders as well as ringers and nest recorders. A lot of important work is undertaken by birders across the length and breadth of Britain & Ireland. One such birder is Lee Collins who writes:

My local patch at Dawlish Warren NNR in South Devon has, over the last three years, achieved some amazing success in generating large numbers of field reads of gulls, terns and waders; my efforts over 2014 were summarized on the Demog blog in May 2015. I am not a ringer, in fact no ringing is currently done on the site (although some ringing was done previously), yet with a positive mind-set, high on-site attendance accompanied with bundles of enthusiasm, anyone can achieve amazing results with ring reading.

Dawlish Warren NNR is a coastal reserve with a  long and rich history in birding terms and I'm proud to have called this my local patch since 1984. On-site breeding of gulls, terns and waders is non-existent and thus ring reads are generally confined to the winter months, although the months of July and August do also provide a bumper opportunity with the onset of post breeding dispersal.

I have just finished writing a detailed 38 page article on my efforts over 2015. In total I've record 429 field reads, comprising 16 species and involving 219 different individuals. Here’s a brief resume of the highlights.



Dawlish Warren. Taken by Lee Collins

The standout single read was in securing my second ever Roseate Tern ring. This bird was ringed at Rockabill, Ireland in 2013 and the read may be the only recovery of this species in the Britain & Ireland during 2015 away from their breeding colonies. Terns are of particular interest to me and although no breeding occurs, I see good numbers of 200+ Sandwich Terns present during July and August. During this periods it is a hive of activity, with birds coming and going as they feed offshore and drop back in to roost or to feed their fledged young in front of the hide.

I made 61 reads during this nine week period, securing positive reads on 35 different individuals (30 adults and five juveniles). The reads were a combination of colour rings (15) and the more difficult to read metal ringed birds (20).

Frustratingly, not a single bird recorded on the site was to provide information on where they bred during 2015, although most probably nested several hundred kilometres away. Importantly, there is a good rate of multi-year observations of several individual birds recorded on-site during 2013 and 2014. The results suggest the Warren plays an important role as a staging and feeding area during post breeding dispersal.

Sandwich Tern taken by Lee Collins

The majority of Sandwich Tern ringing locations were in Scotland (750+ km away) and the Netherlands (600 km away), although others also range from Poland to Ireland. The Polish-ringed Sandwich Tern is particularly noteworthy as it looks to be the first recorded in Britain & Ireland.

Sanderling taken by Lee Collins

Waders are of particular importance and are abundant on the reserve. Sanderling in particular are of interest due to their long-distance migratory pattern and I found ten different colour ringed individuals during 2015. Most birds were seen during the month of May as they headed north to breeding grounds in Greenland. These birds were ringed in Greenland, Iceland or Mauritania.

Ringed Plover taken by Lee Collins

Ringed Plover is an abundant species in Devon, yet with a poor recovery history. I recorded seven in 2015, which is almost double the entire recovery history for the county. These were found during the autumn, presumably passage migrants dropping in to refuel. Unsurprisingly, a few were from Iceland, but several were from Norway and a one was from Germany.

Despite these impressive recoveries, my most important work is in fact dedicated to a species that receives little attention from practically all the birders that visit the site, the Oystercatcher. Over a three year period I have made almost 270 positive metal ring reads involving 116 different individuals, with 77 different birds recorded during 2015 alone.

The vast majority (91%) of these were ringed on-site, as part of a study programme undertaken between 1976 and 2004. The movements recorded may not be very far but this provides invaluable data on longevity and survival of this species, especially as it is now amber listed. I have recorded over a dozen individuals that were at least 25 years old, plus another that was ringed in 1983, making it at least 32 years old!

If you wish to read more, you can read Lee's full article on the Dawlish Warren blog.

A Knot eggstravaganza

Delaware Bay, on the east coast of America, is positioned on the West Atlantic Flyway and is the final staging area for many thousands of waders on their migration from their South American wintering grounds to their Arctic breeding grounds. In spring, the Bay is also home to Horseshoe Crabs. These prehistoric-looking creatures spawn on the beaches in their thousands and their tiny eggs are full of protein – just what hungry waders need to replenish their body fat and to provide them with enough energy to complete their journey north.

The Horseshoe Crab eggs that the birds rely on. Photo by Ruth Walker

Unfortunately, for a number of complex reasons, the shorebird populations have diminished in recent years. As a result, in the mid-1990’s, Wash Wader Ringing Group members helped American scientists to establish the Delaware Shorebird Project. The project aims to research and monitor the health of the wader populations on the Delaware side of the Bay in order to better understand the connection between the birds, Delaware Bay and the Horseshoe Crabs. A sister project runs concurrently on the New Jersey side of the Bay. The birds use both sides of the Bay to feed, often swapping shores to avoid inclement weather. The data gathered are helping to identify and protect the resources that are so critical to the success of the wader migration. In part due to the work of the project, the key target species for the project, Red Knot, has recently been officially recognised as ‘threatened’ by the US Fish & Wildlife Service.

Red Knot. Photo by Ruth Walker

Location of Delaware Bay on the Red Knot's spring migration route

A number of BTO ringers, including BTO staff, still travel out to Delaware each May using their holiday time to volunteer alongside other researchers from around the world on this important project. The study aims to catch and fit individually coded colour flags to 350 individuals of each target species each year: Red Knot, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling (all of which are colour flagged) and Semi-palmated Sandpiper (though these are not flagged on the Delaware side of the Bay). Samples of Dunlin and Short-billed Dowitcher are also ringed and measured if caught. During their time in the Bay, birds can double their body weight and therefore catching birds throughout the season is vital to ascertain their fitness levels. In order to survive their migration, it is thought that Red Knot need to weigh at least 180g when they depart (having arrived a couple of weeks earlier weighing 110-120g).

The very similar looking Semi-palmated Sandpiper (left) and Sanderling (right). Photo by Ruth Walker

We aim to ensure that approximately 10% of the Red Knot population passing through the Bay are flagged, along with smaller percentages of Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling and Semi-palmated Sandpipers. Because waders are global travellers, flagging projects are undertaken in a number of different countries. The flag colour indicates the country the bird was flagged in, so birds caught in Delaware have a green flag, but we also see birds with red (Chile), orange (Argentina), blue (Brazil) and white (Arctic) flags . We attempt to catch approximately every three days so that we have weight samples throughout the stopover period, with the rest of the time spent counting the numbers of birds using each of the beaches each day, re-sighting the colour-flagged birds as well as the seemingly endless task of entering and checking all of the data. Re-sighting colour-flagged birds not only gives information on arrival and leaving dates and movements of individual birds within the Bay, but also information on survival and the total number of birds using the Bay.

An American-ringed Ruddy Turnstone foraging. Photo by Ruth Walker 

This year, 362 Red Knot were caught, along with 284 Ruddy Turnstone, 75 Sanderling, 407 Semi-palmated Sandpipers, 472 Dunlin and 78 Short-billed Dowitchers. It was very pleasing to see that of the Red Knot ringed during the final catch of the season, 74% weighed more than 180g, 23% were over 200g with the heaviest bird weighing in at a whopping 228.6g! Thankfully, only 4% weighed less than 150g and would need to remain for longer in the Bay.

As the birds departed the Bay, so did the BTO staff and other volunteers. We look forward to catching up with the birds again next year! 

The return of Sanderling NT88726

Below, Richard du Feu recalls one of those amazing moments when you meet an old friend on its travels...

"In the 25 years since my first visit to the Wash as a 9-year-old boy, there have been many memorable and interesting individual birds I have ringed and retrapped. But I have no doubt that NT88726 will remain as one of the highlights for many years to come.

Originally the Wash Wader Ringing Group caught this Sanderling in September 2010 and ringed it as a moulting adult. Fast forward to November 2012 when I joined an expedition to Portugal with members of the Farlington Ringing Group, primarily to work on Black Tailed Godwit and Sanderling. There in amongst a small catch of Sanderling near Lisbon was a British ringed Sanderling that I recognised as a bird ringed on the Wash. Colour rings were added as part of a project run by the University of Groningen (see the photo below, courtesy of Justin Walker).

On the recent WWRG summer trip to Snettisham, Norfolk, I was fortunate enough to be present when NT88726 was once again caught and, as in 2010, this bird was moulting.

NT88726 adds to our understanding of the Sanderling life-cycle and shows how important the Wash is, not only for the birds that winter on the Wash but also for birds that winter far south of the UK, using the large food resource of the Wash as a place to moult and fatten up for the long flight to their wintering grounds.

I look forward to resighting this special bird in Portugal in November."

Sanderling update

You may remember that we posted a story on the Demog Blog recently regarding a Sanderling that was caught by the Wash Wader Ringing Group wearing a ring from the Switzerland Ringing Scheme. Click here if you missed it.

As Switzerland doesn't have any shoreline we thought that this bird could have been ringed in an African country, which doesn't have it's own ringing scheme and therefore might have used Swiss rings, but we were wrong. This bird was in fact ringed in Switzerland. Not only that but out of a group of 40 birds seen flying over, only two were caught and ringed. The ringing location however is quite amazing. These birds were ringed at Col de Bretolet Ringing Station high in the Swiss Alps!

During foggy conditions these birds were migrating over the Alps when they came low enough for the mist nets. These birds represent the highest attitudinal record for this species in Switzerland, and probably the highest Sanderling ever ringed, at 1925m above sea level.

Mist nets are set from August to November to catch migrating birds. This year a total of 16,456 birds were ringed from 94 species, with the main species being Chaffinch, Robin, Pied Flycatcher, Siskin and Willow Warbler.

Thanks to our colleagues in Switzerland, and to Jacquie Clark for the photos of the Col de Bretolet Ringing Station.

Shore-runner where there's no shore

Breaking news - a routine ringing session by the Wash Wader Ringing Group (WWRG) produced a good catch of Sanderling and Dunlin with a nice surprise inside.

The UK and Ireland's shores are internationally important for their waders, either stopping to feed up while on passage or gathering in their thousands to stay for the winter. Thanks to ringing we know these birds have been recorded living to a ripe old age and in the case of Sanderling the current record is 17 years 7 months.

The WWRG had a nice catch of Sanderling and Dunlin this morning with quite a few birds they had ringed in previous years. They also caught a Dunlin wearing a French ring and one with a Spanish ring and a Sanderling with a French and one with a Spanish ring. One Sanderling however was very unexpected, this bird was wearing a ring that said Sempach i.e Switzerland!

The most obvious thought is that Switzerland doesn't have a shoreline and a rough check on the Euring Website shows very few have been ringed i.e. 29 Sanderling ringed between 1947 and 2007. It is possible that this bird could have been ringed using Swiss rings in another country that doesn't have a ringing scheme but this is still the first Swiss ringed Sanderling recorded in this country. It was possibly on its way to Africa and was a good weight and hadn't started its moult yet but we will have a clearer picture once we hear back from Sempach - watch this space.

Thanks to Neil Calbrade for the photo.

Colourful clockwork toys

There is still a lot to learn about Sanderling migration and the International Wader Study Group, among others, are trying to answer some of these questions by colour ringing birds and tracking their movements.

The group have now colour-ringed more than 3,000 Sanderlings in Ghana, Mauritania, Portugal, Netherlands, Poland, Iceland and Greenland, plus a few individuals in Svalbard and Sweden. Many of them can be observed in July-September in the UK on their way south. For many birds the group has long tracking histories of individual birds, some of which have been reported as far south as Namibia.


Luckily only one Sanderling in the photo above is colour ringed and can be identified in the tangle of legs as (D35548). This bird was ringed at Brito Salina, Alcochete beach, Portugal on 16th March 2010 and then was also seen there on the 30th March. This bird was then resighted at Dawlish Warren, Devon on 29th July 2010 where the above photo was taken. This bird must be returning to its wintering area in Portugal after a short breeding season in northeast Greenland or even Ellesmere Island, Canada.


View Sanderling from Portugal in a larger map

For more information about the project click here

Sightings can be send directly to the group for their specific project or via www.ring.ac

Thanks to Owen Selly for letting us know and also for the great photo.