Twite Ringing Pays Dividends

Our ringing Twite at Heysham on cold early mornings last winter described in the last newsletter, has paid handsome dividends as is shown by the results outlined in the TWITE report in this Newsletter. It also shows the value of colour ringing as three of the reports were sightings of colour-ringed birds.

Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit & Polish Med Gull

Colour ringing also provided two outstanding recoveries during this period. Firstly, a further Mediterranean Gull from Poland from the same ringing site as the bird seen  at Morecambe in early spring. This bird was reported from the Stone Jetty area just over 2 months after ringing as an adult in Poland. It shows the early movements of returning Med. gulls and suggests that Britain is a regular passage and wintering site for this population of gulls. There is a distinct possibility that this bird is the un-ringed adult that has frequented the area for several winters. The other report was of a colour ringed Black-tailed Godwit from the Eric Morecambe Pool. It had been ringed in southern Iceland in May 2000 and was on the pools in early August this year. In between it had been seen in Northumberland, Southern Ireland and back in Iceland. Last year produced another one originally ringed in winter in France, seen on the Allen Pool in late April and then in Iceland five days later. These two recoveries nicely show the breeding and wintering areas of our increasing population of Black-tailed Godwit.

Swallow south of the Sahara in Late April

The other outstanding recovery was the catching of a Heysham ringed Swallow in Mauritania West Africa. This was our first record from West Africa. What made it even more interesting was that it was caught and released on April 25, a time when you would expect most birds to be either in Britain or well on their way here. It still had to cross the Sahara. We know from other recoveries that the bulk of our swallows winter in South Africa, so it had travelled quite a distance already.

Weight Watchers - Sedge & Reed Warblers on a diet to gain weight!

At Leighton Moss we have been taking a special interest in the weight increases of Sedge and Reed Warblers in late summer. The speed with which they can put on weight was well shown by a Leighton Sedge Warbler. On August 18^th it weighed 12.2 grams, four days later it had increased to 14.4 grams.  That equates with a 12 stone man putting on over two stone in 4 days. An impossibility for a man, but quite possible for a Sedge Warbler feeding avidly on the plum/reed aphid that have been especially numerous this year.

Sedge & Reed Warblers normally average between 10 and 11 grams. The heaviest Sedge warbler so far this autumn was 17.4 grams and the Reed warbler 14.4. We have had Sedge warblers in previous years, usually in September, weighing in at 20+ grams! Doubling their weight in such a short time to prepare them for migration is really amazing.

Warblers do well.  But where are the Blue Tits?

With a roughly similar effort from year to year, ringing figures can give us a good idea of the productivity of regularly ringed species. This late summer has been a bumper one for most warblers with over 2300 being ringed. At Leighton Moss Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff head the list with an increase of 100% and 110% respectively on last year, which was also a reasonably good year. Blackcap are up by 75%. Reed and Sedge Warblers look like equalling or just surpassing last year, which was also a record for both species. Did the warm settled weather this spring help all these species? By contrast Blue Tits are well down, only about a third of last year to date, although there is often an influx in autumn. Both Heysham and Leighton numbers have been very low. We would be interested to know if this scarcity is also occurring in gardens. It's rather surprising as our nest box broods, although rather small, survived well to fledging.

Common Sandpipers from the North East

A recovery of a Common Sandpiper ringed on passage at Conder Green in August 2001 on its breeding area near Peebles in May this year fits in well with two other local recoveries from the past. One was in the same area and the other in Northumberland, suggesting that some of the North East breeding birds move to the west coast after breeding to fatten up for migration. Like the warblers they can quickly increase in weight by about 50%

Can You Help Locate Winter Thrush Roosts?

We are interested in ringing more winter thrushes, especially redwing. They prefer evergreen shrubbery, especially rhododendrons. If you know of any reasonable sized clumps of thick shrubbery please let us know so we can investigate.