10,000th Swallow at maize field roost

Since 2004 North Lancs Ringing Group have ringed swallows every autumn in a maize field near Hornby.  Initially we started ringing there as part of the swallow roost project and more recently to continue marking some birds passing through the North West of England.  The numbers of birds ringed each years varies massively due to productivity and autumnal weather conditions.  This year we have caught just over 800 with a few weeks of swallow ringing left before the maize is harvested.  When entering the last visits data I noticed we had passed the milestone of 10,000 swallows ringed. 

Below are the totals for all years since 2004:



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Year	Total new	New Juvs	New Adult	% adult	Controls	Recovered
2004	1585	1556	29	2%	6	8
2005	1811	1742	69	4%	7	5
2006	1409	1335	74	5%	2	3
2007	1247	1180	67	5%	1	3
2008	533	507	26	5%	1	1
2009	371	337	34	9%		2
2010	1213	1186	27	2%	1	2
2011	440	362	78	18%		1
2012	612	551	61	10%	1
2013	873	860	13	1%	1
	10094	9616	478	5%	20	25

Ringing swallows at a roost is always going to produce low numbers of retraps as 95% of the birds ringed are juveniles.  Likewise as Hornby is a fair way north we are less likely to catch birds that have been ringed previously compared to sites further south on the Swallow migration route.

The map below shows the origin of all the birds previously ringed that have been caught at Hornby.  Markers with a green P have been ringed in the nest, red J have been ringed as juveniles with the same year and finally purple As are birds that have been ringed as juveniles but we have caught in a subsequent year as an adult.

The second and third maps show where birds that have been ringed at Hornby have been recovered or recaught. The green J markers are the sites where birds have been caught in the same year and the red As are where birds have been recaught in subsequent years.  One map shows the longer distance recoveries and the other is more local.

These maps tell a story which is a not too surprising one.  Most of the birds we catch are locally bred typically from the Lakes, North East England and Southern Scotland.  These are birds that are yet to find a coastline and are probably following rivers on their autumnal amble to the South coast. If we looked at the recoveries from a coastal roost such as Heysham or Fleetwood I wonder if we would find a different pattern of recoveries.

While Swallows are the target at Hornby we have also had some other interesting captures such as the group's only adult Merlin, 3 Yellow Wagtails, 175 Pied Wagtails and 20 House Martins.

Many thanks to the farmer and everyone who has lent a hand over the last 10 years at Hornby.