Ringing and recoveries roundup

From all in the Ringing and Nest Recording Team, we wish you a Happy New Year!

This is a very busy time of year for us. Ringers all over Britain and Ireland are submitting their 2017 ringing data before their ringing permits can be renewed. The graph below shows when the data were submitted for birds ringed in 2017, and the number of birds in each data load.


Number of ringed birds submitted to BTO. Click to enlarge graph.

The deadline for submitting records isn't until the end of Febuary, but even so, it looks unlikely that we will reach a million birds ringed this year. At the moment Blue Tit is the most-ringed bird with 102,716 ringed, followed by Goldfinch (53,993), Great Tit (53,395), Blackcap (51,806), Chiffchaff (49,801) and then Siskin (33,812).

One of the many male Great Tits ringed. Photo by lee Barber

As the data come in, we also receive the details of BTO-ringed birds which have been reported away from the place of ringing. Here are some interesting recoveries that have turned up so far this year.

A Chiffchaff ringed at Snettisham, Norfolk on 24 September 2016 was recaptured at Gwennap, Cornwall on 6 January 2018 (489 km). A Goldcrest got a bit too close to a cat on 9 January at South Elmsall, Pontefract after being ringed at Heysham Harbour, Lancashire on 19 September 2017 (118 km). An unfortunate Lesser Redpoll was found after falling prey to an unknown predator at Oudon, Nantes, France. It had been ringed near Darlington, Stockton-on-Tees (805 km); strangely, the ringing and finding dates are exactly the same as those of the Goldcrest. On a lighter note, an Oystercatcher was seen at Dawlish Warren, Devon on 4 January; this individual was ringed at Holbeach St Matthew on 31 August 1999 (353 km).

Male Goldcrest. Photo by Lee Barber

Last week we received a report of a ring being 'found in a drawer' in Tennessee, US on 7 January 2018. A BTO ring being found in America is always a special event, but while processing the details, we realised we already had a report of this bird on the system. It actually died in 2005 (4.5 months after ringing). This ring was put on a female Canada Goose at Llangorse Lake, Powys... and was shot at St Johns, Worcester, 77 km away, and reported by someone who lived near Llanelli, Camarthenshire. It is amazing to see how far a ring can travel without the bird.

Thanks to all our ringers and nest recorders for doing such great work; without them this information would be impossible.

Getting collared by a goose

Geese are one a special group of birds that can divide people's opinion in the same way that city pigeons or urban gulls can. Many assume that geese stay in the same place year after year, especially the ones that are fed in parks and urban areas. No one really knows for sure however and ringing is uniquely set up to be able to find this out.

Canada Geese taken by John Harding

One particular issue people have is that when geese moult during June or July, they drop all their flight feathers simultaneously and become flightless. Due to the fear of predation they remain very close to bodies of water for the month or so while they regrow their feathers. Geese can cause serious habitat degradation in certain locations like the reed beds at Hickling Board, Norfolk (.pdf) and understanding more about the reasons behind this can improve the situation for geese and people.

On our BTO Nunnery Lakes reserve, Thetford, Norfolk we have several fishing lakes and the geese usually choose the lake that has fencing around it. The downside of this decision is that the geese quickly eat all the accessible food and they have to be moved out onto another lake. During this process the geese are ringed, and in 2012 our ringers started to add uniquely coded plastic neck collars to Greylag and Canada Geese as part of the Hickling Broad project.

Canada Goose AEL - taken by Neil Calbrade

Neck collars are a safe marking method for large geese and have been used widely in previous studies on species such as the migratory Pink-footed Goose and White-fronted Goose, allowing individuals to be identified when on water as well as on land. This is particularly important if you are investigating moulting birds, where seeing their legs are an issue. Due to the size of the goose's head the collars actually have quite a lot of room inside to move around.

Greylag FHA bringing up the next generation - taken by Janet Foster

Since 2012, we have had a fantastic response from BTO staff, volunteers and members of the public who have submitted sightings of any geese with neck collars to www.ring.ac, specifying the species, combination on the colour ring, location (ideally with a grid reference) and the date.

The map below shows the sightings that we received between summer 2012 to summer 2014 away from the reserve itself. As you can see they did indeed go into town but also they explored the surrounding waterways and lakes.




What is amazing however, is after the summer of 2014 the geese were spotted much further away from the BTO reserve, see map below. The reason for this are under investigation and some individuals regularly return to the BTO after making these 'unusual' movements. Being able to identify each individual on the water should help us answer some interesting questions like 'do geese moult in the same place every year', 'do they winter in the same locations' and 'why do they move'.




If you do see a neck collared goose, please report it via www.ring.ac and you will receive information on the movements of that particular goose and at the same time increase our understanding of these birds.

Merry Christmas bloggers!

Just as we're in the midst of one of a big freeze, some birds just seem to be ignoring it completely. This week we had a report of a Canada Goose sitting on five eggs on a canal right in the middle of Manchester (not quite the one below), so it'll be interesting to see how it fares.



We've also hear of a Robin apparently nest-building in late November (Suffolk), a female Mallard with 14 day-old ducklings in mid November (on a golf course pond in Hainault Forest, London) and also a late Reed Warbler caught in Sussex on 1 December (it was originally ringed at the same site in late October).

If you find any odd nesting behaviour over the winter then we'd be interested to hear about it. All of us in the BTO Demography Team wish you a Merry Christmas and hope you have a New Year full of ringed birds and recorded nests!

Thanks to Judith Smith (Greater Manchester Bird Recorder) for letting us know about this bird.