Sunday, 23 January 2011

Summary of 2010.

This has been a record year for the group, with over 4,800 birds ringed and new record totals for 14 species during 2010. The combination of cold spells of weather at both ends of the year, coupled with a good breeding season, has led to high totals of a wide range of species. In both January and December, the large congregation of coot at Southport allowed 660 to be caught of which many were colour ringed, leading to some fascinating rapid movements. Most notable were birds sighted in Leicester and Cornwall within a few weeks of ringing, showing that coot will continue to move large distances during spells of cold weather. With regular reading of colour rings, some birds have begun to show established patterns of movement in successive winters. We hope to analyse these results in more detail after a further season of field observations.

Good numbers of tufted duck were also caught in January, but only a handful of short distance movements within Merseyside has so far been notified. As a spin-off, a rapid cold weather Canada goose movement of 50km across the Pennines was also recorded. Sustained ringing of Canada geese throughout the year led to record totals for this species as well. Later in the year, a new site for catching black-headed gulls by hand was identified which, combined with increased ringing effort at a productive colony, has also led to over 600 being ringed. Concerted efforts at ring reading in the field identified 15 foreign ringed black-headed gulls from 9 countries.

During late spring, the good breeding season with high nest box occupancy allowed record numbers of blue and great tits and tree sparrows to be ringed. Long-tailed tits were also caught in record numbers, showing that many had successfully survived the cold spell. More systematic searching of reed beds, coupled with increased expertise at nest finding, resulted in almost 50 pullus reed warblers being ringed. Later in the year, a new swallow roost was located and although no more than 250 birds were present at any one time, over 500 were caught in several visits. Notable were several retraps of pulli ringed nearby in previous years as well as a control that had moved 200km north-west from a roost in Northamptonshire earlier in the autumn. Increased ringing activity in the reed bed also led to record reed bunting totals.

The setting up of regular feeding stations helped to boost finch numbers and following the good breeding season record totals of goldfinch, bullfinch and chaffinch were ringed, including a rapid movement of one of the latter from Heysham. Good numbers of brambling were present from late September along with more resident species, leading to a record total of these. By December, that even more charismatic visitor from Scandinavia, the waxwing, arrived in force, leading to the capture of a record total of 36 over three days.

Many thanks are due to all landowners for permission to ring at numerous sites during 2010.

Steve Christmas.

2010 Ringing totals.

Species Full Pulli Retrap / Recov Total
Grey Heron   7   7
Mute Swan 316 1 624 941
Whooper Swan 1   2 3
Greylag Goose 1   1 2
Canada Goose 166   41 207
Gadwall 1     1
Teal     1 1
Mallard 2   4 6
R C Pochard 1     1
Tufted Duck 75   9 84
Goosander 1     1
Moorhen 1     1
Coot 657 3 791 1451
Lapwing   7   7
Black H Gull 106 501 31 638
Common Gull 2     2
L B B Gull 1     1
Herring Gull 4   1 5
Stock Dove 1 2   3
Woodpigeon 9 4   13
Collared Dove 3 2   5
Barn Owl   9 1 10
Tawny  Owl 2 2   4
Long Eared Owl   3   3
Swift 6     6
Kingfisher 1     1
GS Woodpecker 5   1 6
Sand Martin 39   3 42
Swallow 568 40 10 618
Meadow Pipit 92   1 93
Waxwing 36     36
Wren 17   1 18
Dunnock 37   16 53
Robin 45 9 19 73
Blackbird 70 24 19 113
Song Thrush 5 25   30
Redwing 1     1
Mistle Thrush   1   1
Grasshopper W 2     2
Sedge Warbler 10   2 12
Reed Warbler 34 47 14 95
Whitethroat 4 5   9
Blackcap 8     8
Chiffchaff 6   1 7
Willow Warbler 10 12   22
Goldcrest 15   5 20
Long-tailed Tit 87   24 111
Willow Tit     10 10
Coal Tit 24   8 32
Blue Tit 251 222 130 603
Great Tit 174 83 112 369
Nuthatch 5 6 10 21
Treecreeper 2     2
Jay 3     3
Magpie 3     3
Jackdaw   2   2
Starling 64   3 67
House Sparrow 13   2 15
Tree Sparrow 9 96 2 107
Chaffinch 142   8 150
Brambling 13     13
Greenfinch 95   7 102
Goldfinch 268   32 300
Linnet 3     3
Lesser Redpoll 44   2 46
Bullfinch 73   47 120
Yellowhammer 19   2 21
Reed Bunting 52 5 3 60
69 species 3705 1118 2000 6823

 

Group members 2010

Steve Christmas, Tim Christmas, Wes Halton, Kane Brides

Charles Findlay, Jenny Cliff & Ciaran Hatsell.

1 comment:

  1. A great year, congratulations on the great work.
    Hugs, A. Fajardo (GAA)

    ReplyDelete