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.
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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.


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