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)

Tuesday 19 April 2016

2015 Annual report

The North Lancs Ringing Group annual report is now available for download here.

Many thanks to all who contributed.

Saturday 16 April 2016

A Bullfinch Morning

The highlight of a morning visit to Jerry and Barbara's woodland edge garden at Silverdale was the catching of 12 Bullfinch. This compares with just 10 over the winter in 13 ringing visits. The down side was that we couldn't ring two of them because of warty growths on the legs, the first time we have recorded this in Bullfinch. We have had several Chaffinch with the same problem but on this visit we caught seven all with no problems.One further Bullfinch had been ringed by Andrew in his Over Kellet garden in January 2012 so  it had moved 8 km the longest Bullfinch movement we have recorded. This also was showing slight signs of  leg warts.

The catching of two more Great Spotted Woodpeckers brings the total since August to 22 and reflects the large amount of woodland in the Silverdale area. Nuthatch stand at 19 for the same period. Blue Tits at 152, Coal Tits 115 and Great Tit 83.   These figures refer to the total number of individuals caught with retraps from previous years only counted once.

The Lesser Redpoll spring passage is underway, on the day after the above catch we caught 17 of which two were controls. Of 170  caught to date so far this year by the Group seven have been controls, averaging ca 1 in 25.
John