News From the Ringing Group Autumn 2004

Swallows Take to the Maize Fields

A huge hirundine roost was discovered by Jean Roberts in a large maize field between Hornby and Melling in late July. An estimated ten thousand birds were using this roost for much of August mainly swallows but many sand martins early in the month. Also present were numbers of pied wagtails a few yellow wagtails and reed buntings. In ten visits we ringed almost 1600 birds mainly swallows, but also 128 sand martins. Two of the sand martins were from a nearby Lune colony, but we caught 6 juvenile swallows with rings not ours which when we get details will give us information on the source of the birds using the roost. Ringing such large numbers should help us to trace the movements of the birds as they start on the long journey to South Africa. Another interesting finding was that only 15 of the swallows and 1 sand martin were adult birds. We would be very interested in any other reports of maize fields being used as roosts

Black-headed Gulls and Other Birds in the Garden

Did you ever wonder where the noisy black-headed gulls that frequent urban areas during cold spells come from? Last winter Alan Draper ringed just 12 gulls in his Torrisholme garden and was rewarded with a sighting from Denmark on May 18th. This fits in well with sightings or recoveries from the breeding areas in Finland (7) Latvia (2) Sweden (6) Norway (2) and Denmark (6). Most of these rings have been read through telescopes by Peter Marsh and Pete Crooks mainly in the Morecambe/Heysham area.

Other garden birds showing movements included a Greenfinch ringed during the large autumn movement recorded at Heysham last October, it was caught at Slaley Northumberland in early April. While a Robin ringed by Andrew Cadman in his Over Kellet garden in February this year was found in Ambleside in early April.

Why Do Reed Warblers Live So Long?

The capture of a reed warbler first ringed in 1994 set a new longetivity record for this species of 9 years and 293 days, and its still going strong! . We also caught 2 birds which were 7 years old. This compares with records of just over 5 years for sedge warbler and willow warbler the other two warblers we have ringed in numbers. The thought that this bird had made nine journeys to West Africa and back and survived, is truly amazing

Knot Populations and Movements

The Knot populations within the Bay have changed markedly in recent years. The quite large moulting population has disappeared and the arrival of the wintering populations is now much later. Are these changes due to the milder winters of recent years? A large catch at Heysham by the Wader Group included 25 birds ringed elsewhere. These show that many of our wintering birds moult around the North Sea from the German and Dutch Waddenzee to the east coast of Britain from the Tay to and especially the Wash. Then move to the Bay to winter. So the pattern is very similar to that established by ringing in the 1970 and 80's. One new finding though was shown by 15 birds ringed in the previous November in the Solway. Knot are obviously very mobile birds at this time of year. One heartening finding was that there was a very large number of birds of the year showing it had been a good breeding season. One bird set a new record being 16 year old and still going strong.

Bearded Tit News

Our long running study shows that the population is recovering well from the crash of three years ago. The population looks like being at least 25 pairs and to date 66 fledged young have been ringed. Other interesting findings show that some pairs remain together throughout the year. One pair has been proved to nest together for three successive years and one survivor of the population crash is now 6 years old and still going.