Siskins Head the Ringing Totals

With 1487 birds ringed so far this year it came as something of a surprise to find Siskin top of the list with 373 ringed to date. All have been ringed in gardens and remained there in numbers until the milder weather of the last few days. This compares with 172 in the whole of 2012 showing what a good season it has been for this species.
Of the 373  caught  12 birds were already ringed so we look forward to getting full details in time. Previous recoveries of birds caught in our area in late winter/early spring have been mainly  from wintering sites  in the south of England ranging from Suffolk and Kent through to Hampshire.  These birds are heading for the breeding areas in  Northern Scotland (10 recoveries) or Southern Scotland (7 recoveries) with one killed by a cat in southern Sweden.
In total we  have had 68 retraps. Almost all were within a few days of ringing. But five had been ringed in the east of our area in Bowland in the previous July and August and retrapped in February and  March in the same area. Siskins have recently colonised our area and appear to be spreading into the many maturing conifer forests so may feature more in our  future ringing.