Some More Local Movements

The latest batch of recoveries featured some interesting local movements. A Barn Owl ringed as a nestling in our area last spring was unfortunately killed on the road at Penrith in October having moved 57 kms north.

A Goldfinch ringed on the Calf of Man on 17th of May as an adult female was caught while visiting a feeding station in Over Kellet in November136 km east. Goldfinches from feeding stations in our area have been found breeding on Islay and wintering as far south as Sussex and Berkshire.

A Lesser Redpoll caught at the same feeding station in early April had been ringed in Staffordshire 20 days previously. Redpoll moving through our area in spring have been reported as wintering in Sussex, Surrey, Gt London, Hereford and Hampshire.

Two Reed Bunting show the typical movements through our area. a Juvenile ringed in Cumbria in July was at Leighton Moss in October while one ringed at Middleton Nature Reserve in September 2010 was in Cheshire just over a year later. We have had four other Reed Bunting from our area wintering in Cheshire but others have moved as far south as Dorset and Kent.

John

Red Kite Reported

This superb photo was taken by Richard Whitham at Leighton Moss on January 16th. The Red Kite is wing tagged with Green/white 60 . It was tagged in Galloway on June 21st last year from a brood of three. It had not been reported since it fledged in early July so nice to know that it has survived.

Although Red Kite are seen irregularly in our area each year this is as far as I am aware the first definite link with the Galloway population although wing tagged birds have been seen before and full details not reported. It had been thought that they originated from the Yorkshire release site. Will be interesting to see if it stops in the area.

Many thanks to Richard for allowing us to use his photo.

John

Blue Tits recover

Two visits to the woods at Roeburndale this weekend saw a welcome increase in the number of Blue Tits after worries about their low numbers earlier in the winter. 80 birds caught, of which 6 were Coal Tit (a very low number for this site), 41 Blue Tit and 20 Great Tit. Of these birds, the breakdown of new and retrapped birds broken down by age class is as follows:

Coal Tit no new birds, retrap - 1 juv, 5 adult
Blue Tit new birds - 12 juv, 5 adult; retrap - 15 juv, 9 adult
Great Tit new birds - 2 juv, 2 adult; retrap - 9 juv, 7 adult

This suggests that juvenile birds did survive until winter in good numbers. Low numbers earlier in the autumn and winter were possibly related to a very good food supply in the woods (we were still being bitten by insects well into November) meaning that Blue Tits stayed in the canopy feeding on natural food until late on in the season.

Rather oddly, very few nestlings from the many boxes in this valley are ever caught in winter in these woods - we still don't know where they all end up!

Paul

A Record Year

The Group has had a most successful year with 14,214 birds of 65 species ringed in 2011. This is made up of 11,890 full grown birds and 234 nestlings. We also recorded 3987 retraps or recoveries making a total of 18,201 handlings. This is 1259 up on 2010 which was also a record year. Below I list some of the years achievements.

The most ringed bird was Sand Martin as part of our RAS study of the Lune colonies. Breeding pairs increased quite dramatically this year and we ringed 2140 new birds made up of 1131 adults and 1018 juveniles and we had 648 retraps mainly of birds from previous years. The survival rate from 2010 was one of the highest yet recorded. We were rewarded with five French and one Spanish controls and 16 from elsewhere in Britain. To date we have had seven recoveries on their southward migration, But the highlight was the re-trapping of two birds at our colonies of birds that had been ringed originally on the Lune, re-trapped in winter in Senegal West Africa then back again at our colonies.

Blue tits at 1961 (1053 adults and 903 nestlings) was our second commonest bird. The nestlings were ringed as part of the monitoring of our 15 nest box schemes. Most of these are in the higher oak woods of the Lune valley and so far this year we have had six retraps at our feeding stations showing a marked movement from this upland woods to the more hospitable winter quarters in towns and villages.

Another RAS study, that of Reed Warblers at Leighton Moss accounted for 980 ringed and 337 retraps.. Yearly survival rates were also good and we established a group record for our longest lived Reed Warbler at nine years and 314 days beating the previous record by just 21 days.

Yet another of the Groups RAS studies that of Pied Flycatchers in the Lune valley produced record numbers with 507 nestlings and 51 new adults ringed. Survival from 2010 was also good. we caught 62 birds from previous years.

Other species ringed in good numbers included Sedge Warbler (576), Willow Warbler (618), Greenfinch (763), Goldfinch (489), Lesser Redpoll (430) and Siskin (483). Of the rarer birds in our area the ringing of 46 Grasshopper Warblers and 54 Lesser Whitethroats should not be overlooked. The latter produced our most outstanding control, one ringed on spring migration at Eliat in Israel and caught breeding at Middleton NR. Running it a close second was a Cetti's Warbler ringed in March 2010 at Leighton Moss and found breeding just over a year later near Portsmouth 389 km SSE . The second longest movement by a British ringed Cetti's Warbler.

John

How Long Do Birds Live?

One of the most fascinating things about ringing over a long period is that you assemble data on how long birds live. I have always kept a file detailing the longevity records of the group. This time of year I search our data base to see if any of the birds we have re-trapped or have been recovered, have improved on the records we have.

I always check out Reed Warbler first for not only do we ring large numbers each year (980 this year), so improving the chances of getting a new record but also because among small passerines Reed Warblers are well known for being long lived. I was not disappointed for we re trapped one this year nine years and 314 days after ringing. This extends the groups record of the oldest Reed Warbler by just 21 days.

I then turn to another frequently ringed species Blue Tit (1910). The oldest this year was one re-trapped seven years and 326 days after ringing. Another record, 120 days longer than our previous oldest bird.

Great Tits are ringed in smaller numbers (920) but our previous record was 13 years and 339 days not only a record for the group but also for the whole BTO ringing scheme. This year's oldest was four years and 74 days so something of a come down.

Coal Tits (380) have been present in good numbers this year and the oldest at 6 Years and 314 days, beat our previous record by 24 days.

Paul in our last posting highlighted a Dunnock at five years 57 days. Very good, but well short of our oldest record of six years and 205 days.

The species we have ringed most of this year is Sand Martin at 2140 with 648 re traps. Our oldest bird was four years and 216 days but our all time record is five years and 355 days.

These are this year's high lights, remember though that except for the Dunnock which was found dead, all the others were re trapped so hopefully are still going strong. One final thought with our data base it took me ca 35 mins to check through all our re traps. In the days before computers with all paper records it would probably have taken me at least 35 hours to check and then I would probably not have been as accurate.

But the last word should go to the birds, think of that Reed Warbler making at least nine journeys back and forth between Leighton Moss and West Africa. Quite a feat for such a small bird weighing just 12 grams or so!
John

Dunno what you been up to?

We are told the prime value in ringing comes from the data that can be used in population modelling and much of the significant information that the BTO produce falls under the Integrated Population Modelling programme and thus retrap and recovery data are much appreciated by ringers, even if sometimes, such records lack the glamour of records of oddities - but at this season, most of us know that not all that glitters is gold.

Fitting this is a record of a Dunnock, caught as a juvenile in September 2006 in Hala and caught by a cat five years later in November 2011 in a garden less than 100 metres away. Interestingly, this bird had never been recaught in numerous ringing sessions since then. Short scale movement is the norm for this species (95% of recoveries are within 5km of the ringing site) but this does not mean that records ssuch as this are dull - as Ian Hartley writes in the Migration Atlas, "there are still unanswered questions about the species' local movements"!

Paul

Bearded Tit End of Term Report

With the water level at Leighton Moss now extremely high precluding any further ringing, its a good time to take stock of this years study.

Following the harsh 2010/11 winter and very extensive trashing of the reed beds by roosting Starlings the breeding population declined from 30 to 12 pairs, Productivity has been quite reasonable and we have ringed 32 juveniles.

Crude survival figures from last year explains the population decline. Adults had a 22 % survival but young birds only 4%. This compares with an average of ca 60% for adults and 40% for juveniles since our study started in 1992

Grit tray sightings have been good thanks to the dedicated work of Keith Kellet and Alan Gallagher and family.Between September 14th and December 8th a total of 382 sightings of colour ringed birds were logged. All the 21 adults recorded this year were sighted on the trays.

Two adult birds equalled the record of visiting the trays on at least 22 days. But a bird of the year set a new record by being recorded on 24 days.

Many thanks to Tim Munsey for the photograph.
John