Late Christmas Present

We have had news that a ringed Robin has been seen in and around the Tophill Low visitor centre feeders during mid-December. Even better news is that Mike Day's photograph allowed us a partial ring read and it confirmed that it is one of the birds that I ringed on the 2nd May 2011. At the time it was identified as a 2CY male i.e. it was born in 2010.

Richard Hampshire, reserve warden, has suggested with this bird holding its winter territory around the feedesr that perhaps the South Scrub area where ringing takes place acts as a breeding reservoir for resident birds on the reserve (lots of R's in that sentence, apologies) and hopefully this will be something that is borne out with further sightings of this kind. If you do see a ringed bird at Tophill Low do endeavour to read the ring or get a photo - a partial ring read may well identify the bird! The White-fronted Goose flock that was present in late 2011 and early 2012 held several ringed birds but none could be identified as they kept there distance.

News also reached the ringing team of a ringed Mute Swan that was seen on Watton NR on the 6th November 2011. Fortunately Simon & Yvonne Barwick were able to read the ring which showed that this bird was ringed as a 1CY bird on 25th August 2009 at Sorby Beck, Brompton by Sawdon, North Yorkshire. This is a small village on the southern fringe of the North Yorkshire Moors. Its movement post ringing is a minimum of 36km and it was resighted 803 days post ringing.
View Mute Swan in a larger map

Colour ringed Whooper Swan

In November Tom Lowe noted that one of a herd of 13 Whooper Swans at Tophill Low was colour ringed. Fortunately he managed to read it - T6H and found that the swan was ringed as an adult in August 2009 just outside Reykjavijk. It was seen a little to the south in Iceland in April 2011 meaning in the interim it had successfully migrated to Europe and back twice. No other sightings were noted between this and Toms sighting which means it had flown a minimum of 1025 miles if it flew to Tophill Directly. Below is the google map of sightings. As per usual I have managed to ruin the framing of the map - zoom out for full effect. Thanks to both Tom and Richard Hampshire for the information.


View Whooper Swan in a larger map

Sedge Warbler Control

Earlier in the CES season we controlled our first bird from offsite. This means that the bird had been ringed by another group at a different location. We eagerly awaited the ringing data from the BTO and finally it has arrived. We controlled the Sedge Warbler on 26th June 2011, in the breeding season. The bird was originally ringed at Oxmardyke Marr, East Yorkshire which is on the north bank of the River Humber on 23rd April 2011. In 64 days between ringing it had travelled 18 miles. Presumably it was caught on migration just after arriving before filtering up to Tophill Low to breed.
View Sedge Warbler in a larger map

Friday, 9th September

A small catch of 10 birds on the 9th included a couple of re-traps, both from this season - a Whitethroat and a Treecreeper. This visit signifies the beginning of the autumn and winter ringing programme after the completion of the CES season.

Complete catch listed below (retraps in brackets):

Wren 1
Reed Warbler 1
Blackcap 3
Sedge Warbler 2
Treecreeper (1)
Whitethroat (1)
Robin 1

CES 4th September

Now the breeding season is finishing, birds are moving and as such the catch has improved. The highlight of Sundays session was undoubtedly the male Kestrel that found itself unexpectedly in a mistnet. Certainly a first for our nets at Tophill. The session saw 29 birds caught of 19 species including three re-traps of our own birds. 8 Blackcaps was an extremely good catch as were single Goldcrest and Treecreeper.

Catch in full (retraps in brackets):  Garden Warbler 1

                                                    Blackcap 8

                                                    Blue Tit 1

                                                    Whitethroat 1

                                                    Wren 1

                                                    Great Tit 1

                                                    Reed Warbler 2

                                                    Dunnock 1

                                                    Bullfinch 1

                                                    Kestrel 1

                                                    Chaffinch 1

                                                    Chiffchaff 3

                                                    Willow Warbler 1

                                                    Long-tailed Tit (1)

                                                    Lesser Whitethroat 1

                                                    Blackbird (1)

                                                    Robin (1)

                                                    Treecreeper 1

                                                    Goldcrest 1

CES visit 7th August

4 Blackcaps & 2 Blackbirds was the total catch whilst I was on holiday... We are hoping to get out again in the next week or two.

CES visit 6 - Sunday 10/07/2011

A bit slow to post this I'm afraid. We had a slowish session a couple of weeks ago with only 12 birds caught. Despite this we managed 9 species and it gave us the time to appreciate the general flora and fauna of the ringing site.

We did have some interest from passers by and Graham was able to show a male Bullfinch being processed and ringed.

Highlights included a male Bullfinch, freshly fledged Blue Tit and re-traps of Song Thrush, Blackcap, Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler. Of even more interest was news from the previous visit that we managed a control of a Sedge warbler. At the moment we know nothing more but I will fill you in when I get the chance. We did have beautiful Ruby-tailed Wasp Chrysis ignata on the processing site, all metallic emerald and red but sadly our photos weren't very good. We did manage to find a juvenile Common Frog - a site rarity with Marsh Frogs being more prevalent.

We had many butterflies and grasshoppers around with Red Admiral, Ringlet, Marbled White, Small and Large Skipper amongst others and Common Green & Field Grasshoppers.

Retraps in brackets.

Song Thrush                       (1)

Reed Warbler                     1(1)

Wren                                 1

Sedge Warbler                   1(1)

Willow warbler                    2

Blackcap                            (1)

Blue Tit                              1

Whitethroat                        1

Bullfinch                             1

Other interesting news is that of a Sedge Warbler which we initially put down as a re-trap but has turned out to be our first control. No news of its history yet but once we have heard I will post the information with a google map of its movement.