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)

Monday, 12 March 2012

Rapid Coal Tit movement, and interesting Goldfinch

This morning before work I noticed a ringed Goldfinch on my feeder. As I have only ringed one in the garden I thought I should have a go at reading it. After about 5 minutes I had read V9xx519 when the bird flew off. After a quick check with the BTO to see if this could be tied down to a single bird it turns out it could be one of 6 birds. All of these are over 100km away. Looks like I'll have to spend some more time with the scope to nail this one. What a valuable resource having all the ringing data stored electronically - in the past this would have been a good hour long job and not worth the effort, now it is a very short job to see it not uniquely identifiable.

A Coal Tit I caught on the 4th March which was not from any of the local ringing groups turns out to be a fairly long range Coal Tit travelling around 60km in 90 days from South West Lancs RG. There have only been 17 records of Coal Tits in Lancashire moving more than 10km and no records of them moving more than 100km. As a result this is one of the largest movements of a Coal Tit recorded in the county.

Many thanks to Lee Barber for the information.

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