End of Year Summary

 With almost all the data in for the year we have ringed  10750 new birds, although with retraps and sightings we have details of almost 14000 captures.Top of the pile as usual is Blue Tit with 2263 followed by Goldfinch at 1059 and Pied Flycatcher at 773. Of the warblers,  Willow Warbler was top with 584 followed by Reed Warbler at 577, Sedge Warbler at  247,Chiffchaff at 225 and Blackcap at 216.

Our  colour ringed studies of the  Nuthatch and Bearded Tit produced 415 and 150 sightings and furthered our knowledge of the behaviour of these two resident species. Our other colour ringed studies of Grey Wagtail produced sightings in Shropshire and Conwy in early spring and Hampshire in winter.While Common Sandpiper sightings were from Herts, Lincoln and Surrey all on their way south in late summer

Recovery highlights included a Robin  ringed  in early March in the Highland Region  and caught at Middleton on May 1st- a time you would expect Robins to be moving north. A Blackbird in Norway in late March was our sixth from Norway, but a first for Norway was a Brambling ,ringed 30 September and caught 33 days later at Newton. Although we ringed twice as many Reed as Sedge Warblers we had only one foreign recovery  in Spain, but three Sedge Warblers in France  and one in Belgium. Interesting that this brings our Sedge Warblers from France to 54 but only three in Spain. By contrast  29 Reed Warbler have been found in France but 5 in Spain. The groups all-time totals for Reed Warbler is 20.450, 6000 more than Sedge Warbler.

Colour ring sightings of birds ringed elsewhere has  generated more interesting recoveries. We sighted no fewer than five colour ringed Avocets  in the small colony at Leighton Moss. A  French ringed nestling ringed ten year ago has bred here for the past six years. A nestling ringed in The Netherlands in 2016  bred this year as did two reared  in Teesmouth and one in South Yorkshire.

Mediterranean Gulls mainly at the power station outflow at Heysham came from Germany (2), France, The Netherlands and Poland (2) all  except one Polish bird were  colour ringed as nestlings. The French bird is now in its tenth year.

John