Some Quick Recoveries

With the weather set in an anti-ringing mood, it was great to get an interesting batch of recoveries, most of them from ringing earlier in the year.

Two juvenile Sedge Warblers retrapped in Wiltshire and Rutland  both  just nine days after ringing in August, re-enforces many other similar recoveries in past years, suggesting that the Sedge Warblers we ring are mainly passage birds moving through our area quite quickly.

A juvenile Whitethroat was caught on the same day and at the same locality in Wiltshire as one of the Sedge Warblers.  It was caught 23 days after ringing in early August. This is only our fourth Whitethroat from the south of England. Single Willow Warbler and two Chiffchaff were also intercepted in the south  of England. The Chiffchaffs were consecutive ring numbers both were ringed on 2nd October one was caught 5 days later 304 km south in Berkshire and the other 10 days later in Dorset

Two juvenile Reed Warblers from July ringing were caught at the same locality in thePyrenees-Altantiques department right in the south west corner of France. One was 25 and the other 37 days after ringing. These two brings our total of Reed Warblers from  France to 27.

Reed Bunting have been present in good numbers this autumn. One ringed on 3rd  September was caught 27 days later in Dorset. It is our third Reed Bunting from the south coast.

A Bearded Tit ringed as a nestling in April and retrapped in June and August and sighted on the grit trays on 28the September was sighted 12 days later in a very small reedbed at South Walney NR. This is only our third recorded movement  away from Leighton Moss RSPB since 1980 despite ringing 2100. Eruptive behavior has been recorded on three occasions this autumn, but on all occasions the birds were seen to drop back into the reedbeds. But at least one moved out.

Finally a colour ringed Greenshank sighted on the wader pools on 26th to 29th June had been ringed as an adult 22 days previously at Tongue in the Highlands. this is our second  colour ringed Greenshank from this area.
John

More Recoveries & Bearded Tit Update

A new batch of recoveries confirming  known movements but with a few surprises. A Sedge Warbler to Devon 15 days after ringing brought  our total from Devon to six. Another from Dorset was our 21st from this county. The surprise was our first Sedge Warbler from Durham ringed on13th September 15 days later it was 88 km to the NE and going in the wrong direction! A case of reverse migration? We have had  at  least five other similar northerly movements in times past.

 Juvenile Reed Warblers were reported from Dorset, Hampshire and Sussex. This makes 6 from   Dorset, 8 from Hampshire and 47 from Sussex from past ringing. A juvenile Sand Martin from Dumfries ringed in a colony on June  16th and caught at one of our colonies on the River Lune 15 days later, showing how early they move and join other colonies probably for roosting on their way south. Another early mover was a Willow Warbler ringed on 23rd June and caught 214 kms south on 28th July. A Lesser Redpoll  ringed on April 6th was caught  in Dumfries 12 days later.

This week we have caught six  new Bearded  Tits at Leighton Moss RSPB to bring our total of new ringed birds for the year to 69 compared to 48 in 2013 and just 17 in 2012. Judging from the undeveloped colours of  their iris four at least were from late broods. Activity on the gritting trays is running down as usual by early December but a pair seen there this week had been ringed together in June and have been recorded together on six occasions since, confirming the early pair formation of juvenile Bearded Tits.
John