Mystery German Sparrowhawk

After seeing ringing on BBC AutumnWatch, one viewer sent us this fantastic photo of a ringed male Sparrowhawk that visited their garden in Lysted, Kent, last winter.


Nothing too exciting about this until we realised that this wasn’t on of our rings but one from Germany! Zooming in you can just about make out the letters "OLAN" and "MAN" which are actually part of the address "HELGOLAND GERMANIA". Unfortunately we can only make out part of the number, which is ---642-

We have only ever had 15 reports of German-ringed Sparrowhawks in this country, but we don't hold out too much hope of being able to track this one down unless we can read more detail on the ring!

Thanks to Graham Low for reporting this and for the excellent photo!

Ringing on AutumnWatch

After our appearance on SpringWatch in... the spring... there will be a bit of a ringing focus on AutumnWatch this evening.

The team have been out filming recently in various parts, with Martin training to ring in Sussex and Kate and Chris seeing it in action at Portland Bird Observatory in Dorset (below). So keep an eye out for us on BBC2 later this evening - 9pm.