NLRG was formed in 1957 to help in the study of birds in the Lancaster and District Birdwatching Society area. There are currently 12 active ringers. Species currently being studied include: Pied Flycatcher, Bearded Tit, Sand Martin, Twite, Goosander, Oystercatcher and Grey Wagtail. Migration has been studied for 28 years at Heysham. We welcome anyone who wants to observe, help or perhaps wish to become a ringer. Photo: A Heysham-ringed Twite on the Mull of Kintyre (thanks to Eddie Maguire)

Friday 28 January 2011

Recent Recoveries


A new batch of recoveries from the BTO included some interesting records.
The longest distance travelled was a Lesser Redpoll ringed at Heysham on April 13th on spring passage and caught by a ringer 334 km to the south east in Surry on 23/11/10. Was this its wintering location or was it still on passage?

Perhaps the most bizarre record was of a Goldcrest ringed at Leighton Moss on October 20th and found dead 27 days and 94 km to the ESE at Wakefield in Yorkshire Just shows how random some bird movements can be.

A twite ringed at Heysham on March 8th 2010 was caught on Sanda Island off the Mull of Kintyre in July 2010, This is the seventh Twite we have had from,
the ringing site on Sanda along with three others from the same general area, showing it to be one of the main breeding areas of our wintering flock.

In the same batch of recoveries we had four Blue Tits, all ringed as neslings in the nest box sschemes we run in the upland woods on the south of the Lune valley. They showed movements to towns and villages of up to 16 km. Two birds ringed on the same day in late May (but from different broods) were caught together in mid October at a feeding station. A coal Tit nestling ringed in the same wood had also moved out of the upland woods travelling 16 km to a feeding station.

1 comment:

Pete Marsh said...

The Goldcrest needs to be seen in the context of it probably being a continental bird. There were so few British ones on the move in September with a very low population (e.g. first Goldcrest of the YEAR was ringed at Heysham on 26th September!) but significant numbers crossed the North Sea during the early/mid-October easterlies e.g. Heysham status

Therefore could this have been a mini-reorientation to a subsequent wintering site (I doubt if it was still on the move on the finding date)

Pete