Ringing at Tophill Low

Late Christmas Present

2012-01-22T11:19:00.000Z

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

2012-01-14T09:57:00.001Z

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

2011-09-28T20:57:00.000+01:00

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

2011-09-28T20:40:00.001+01:00

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

2011-09-06T20:42:00.000+01:00

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

2011-09-06T20:24:00.003+01:00

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

2011-07-25T15:20:00.002+01:00

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.

CES visit 5 26/6/2011

2011-06-29T21:06:00.001+01:00

Bad weather delayed visit 5 and circumstances conspired so that I wasn't able to be present. A slow session with only ten birds caught including our first CES Goldcrest and second CES Treecreeper. 3 retraps were 2 Sedge Warblers and a Blackbird.

The full totals as follow, retraps in brackets:

Robin 3

Blackcap 2

Blackbird 0 (1)

Sedge Warbler 0 (2)

Goldcrest 1

Treecreeper 1

Happy 10th Birthday

2011-06-09T23:15:00.000+01:00

The Mute Swan featured above was found to ringed so reserve warden, Richard Hampshire, set out to find out its history. First a good picture of the ring managed to get the code - 339.

Craig Ralston, senior reserve warden in the Lower Deerwent Valley for Natural England was able to provide the following information:

"It was ringed at the Lower Derwent Valley NNR to the south east of York, at Mebourne on the Pocklington Canal on 12/8/2001 as a cygnet by Natural England staff as part of our waterfowl ringing programme. Its one of 500 mute swans ringed in the valley and one of a handful which have appeared at
Tophill over the years (but the first for some time). We have also had movements of shelduck, wigeon and an unfortunate ruddy duck from the LDV to Tophill so clearly (and unsurprisingly given the distance) a link between the sites".

And the really good news is - its now breeding on South Marsh West at Tophill Low, in its 10th year.

CES Visit 4 05/06/2011

2011-06-08T22:16:00.002+01:00

We made our 4th visit to Tophill for our CES on Sunday. Aside from a singing Turtle Dove it was very quiet and after 12 birds had been caught by 1pm we went to close the nets up - this didn't go as expected with 39 birds in the nets including two flocks of Long-tailed Tits. We processed these promptly noticing that all bar one bird were juveniles and we had a couple of recaptures. This is promising as Long-tailed Tit numbers suffered with the hard winter.

Star bird - a stunning male Linnet

We also managed a male Linnet in stunning plumage and two Lesser Whitethroats, one of each sex, suggesting breeding close by.

The full catch was as follows:

Willow warbler 3(3)
Chiffchaff 1
Dunnock 2
Song Thrush 0(1)
Lesser Whitethroat 2
Blue Tit 1
Linnet 1
Chaffinch 0(1)
Long Tailed Tit 33(2)

Plus 6 Blue Tit pulli

Recaptures in brackets

The next session is scheduled for 19/6

CES visit 3 Sunday 29/5/2011

2011-06-03T21:42:00.001+01:00

The third CES visit was undertaken on Sunday.Unfortunately the author wasn't present for this session but it was very successful by all accounts. Twelve species were recorded and a total of 23 individuals were caught and processed during the session. Two new species for the constant effort nets were Blue Tit & Treecreeper (although both have been caught on site before).

The full catch is as follows:
(recapture in brackets)

Blackcap 3

Bullfinch 2

Treecreeper 1

Willow Warbler 2(1)

Reed Warbler 2

Dunnock 1(2)

Whitethroat 1

Sedge Warbler 2(1)

Song Thrush 0(1)

Robin 1

Blue Tit 1

Linnet 2

CES visit 2 Sunday 15/5/11

2011-05-19T21:34:00.001+01:00

An unexpected break in the drizzly weather forecast allowed a full CES visit on Sunday morning. We had an excellent catch of 46 birds. We had a number of new species for the CES program including Reed & Garden Warbler (pictures have come out very warm due to a combination of sunlight and reflection off the creosote...).

Garden Warbler

Reed Warbler

We also caught a strange Chaffinch with the tail of an adult but the wing pattern of a 2CY bird. Further research by Graham led to confirmation that this was a 2CY bird as suspected. We managed a number of retraps - 2 Willow Warblers, 1 Chaffinch and 1 Song Thrush plus plenty of birds with brood patches and other signs of breeding. Early in the session we were fortunate enough to catch a family of Long-tailed Tits which hopefully we will see again later on in the year.

Below is a full list of birds ringed (retraps in brackets).

Long tailed tit 8

Dunnock 1

Whitethroat 2

Garden warbler 1

Willow warbler 4(2)

Sedge warbler 2

Chaffinch 2(1)

Song thrush 1(1)

Blackbird 2

Goldfinch 1

Chiffchaff 2

Reed warbler 2

Bullfinch 1

Blue tit 2

Blackcap 1

Monday 2nd May 2011

2011-05-07T20:29:00.001+01:00

This was our first visit as a full Constant Effort Site (CES). For greater detail on what this entails click HERE. We had the nets open before seven with the mornings birdsong accompanying us with Chiffchaff, Cuckoo, Blackcap, Sedge Warbler and Willow Warbler all in fine voice. We had a varied catch with a steady trickle of birds until we closed the nets at 13:00.

Willow Warbler

2 Willow Warbler were the vanguard of a catch of 22 birds of 11 species. Of these we had 8 re-traps including a Lesser Whitethroat ringed as an adult on 1st May 2010. This bird was caught in the same net 366 days later after a trip to Africa, at least the second full migration completed by this bird. A second retrap from last year was a Willow Warbler, ringed as a juvenile in June 2010 which has managed a complete migration to sub-saharan Africa. Below are pictures of the Whitethroat (which interestingly was difficult to age as it had atypical eye pigmentation which suggested it had fledged in 2010 which we know it didn't due to the ring).

Lesser Whitethroat 3rd calender year +

We also re-trapped a Song Thrush which fledged last summer. This bird may or may not have made a significant migration during the winter - unfortunately as partial migrants, without control data during the winter we just can't find out.

re-trapped Song Thrush

The full list of birds caught is below with number of re-traps in brackets.

Blackbird 0(1)
Willow Warbler 2(2)
Dunnock 1(3)
Song Thrush 2(1)
Chaffinch 1(0)
Whitethroat 1(0)
Lesser Whitethroat 2(1)
Wren 2(0)
Robin 1(0)
Linnet 1(0)
Sedge Warbler 1(0)

2nd CY male Linnet (small amount of red on breast plus mantle colour)

Sedge Warbler

Several species were seen on migration with Yellow Wagtails on the reservoir walls, Swifts overhead and a single Wood Sandpiper briefly on South Marsh West - too brief for this observer as I was processing a Robin at the time. It was shepharded off by the following individual.

Little Ringed Plover

CES

2011-03-31T10:13:00.000+01:00

We are pleased to announce that Ringing at Tophill Low has a CES site. We will be making regular visits across the summer. The first visit was last Sunday (I wasn't there). I am reliably informed 16 birds were caught. The details will be updated soon.

11th July 2010

2010-07-12T21:40:00.002+01:00

An excellent ringing session was held on Saturday morning with 25 birds processed. Large numbers of juvenile birds of several species were noted around the site alayed with a reasonable number of singing adults with only Willow Warblers silent - possibly moulting? Of the 25 birds 4 were retraps. We await our first control with baited breath - maybe next time. Around the site lots of Butterflies were seen including Ringlet, Red Admiral, Comma, Small Tortoiseshell & Large White. A Greenshank was noted inflight over the site.

The final totals for the catch were:

- Wren 1
- Blue Tits 2
- Willow Warblers 4 & 1 retrap
- Robins 2 & 1 retrap
- Long-tailed Tits 4
- Blackbird 1
- Coal Tit 1
- Dunnock 1
- Blackcap 3
- Goldcrest 1
- Treecreeper 1
- Bullfinch 1 retrap
- Reed Warbler 1 retrap

The Treecreeper and the Coal Tit were both firsts for the team and both juvenile birds. Other juveniles included Willow Warblers, Long-tailed Tits, Blue Tits & a Robin.

26th June 2010

2010-07-12T21:30:00.003+01:00

Unfortunately a session was aborted in mid June due to the weather so this was the first session in a month and it was particularly quiet with only 9 birds ringed and no retraps. It was notable that there were few birds singing and no obvious young birds around the site. We did have a couple of presumed failed breeding adult Willow Warblers in heavy wing moult that initially appeared like freshly fledged juveniles. A juvenile Blue Tit was the first ringed of the year. Around the ringing site were a number of Grass Snakes on a pleasant morning. A flyover wader proved to be a Little Ringed Plover. There were plenty of Common Terns flying about including the first few young birds. A Red-crested Pochard was seen on South Marsh East.

Final totals for the session:
- Willow Warbler 3
- Sedge Warbler 1
- Reed Warbler 2
- Blackbird 1
- Blue Tit 1
- Chaffinch 1

All newly ringed birds.

23rd May 2010

2010-07-12T21:20:00.002+01:00

A little late in posting Im afraid but here are the ringing totals for the groups late May visit.

Chaffinch 1 new bird & 3 retraps
Dunnock 1 & 2 retraps
Bullfinch 4
Garden Warbler 1
Robin 1 retrap
Chiffchaff 1
Willow Warbler 1 & 1 retrap
Song Thrush 2
Long-tailed Tit 4

22 Birds all said with 7 birds retrapped. All of the retraps are from previous sessions this year. The Garden Warbler & Chiffchaff represent firsts for the year.

Saturday 24th April 2010

2010-05-01T19:46:00.004+01:00

An unpromising weather forecast was thankfully inaccurate and we managed a productive session this morning. The site was ringing to the sound of warbler song and this was reflected by the catch which included 3 Willow Warblers, 2 Lesser Whitethroats, 1 Reed Warbler, 2 Sedge Warblers & a Blackcap. Other bits and pieces included a Song Thrush, 3 Blackbirds including a re-trap from April 10th, 2 female Linnets including one with a large brood patch, 2 Dunnocks & 2 Chaffinches. Some passage migrants were seen including a couple of Yellow Wagtails, Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper, a number of hirundines and Swifts and also the first few Common Terns to arrive on site.

note the female Chaffinch showing adult type central tail feathers indicating that it wasn't hatched last year.

Saturday 10th April 2010

2010-05-01T19:00:00.003+01:00

A small but varied catch included an early Sedge Warbler, a site first for 2010 which delighted the 10 year old finder and his mother who subsequently ringed the bird as it went into one of our nets. The catch runs as follows:

Willow Warbler 2

Robin - a retrap from earlier in the spring

Blackcap 2

Sedge Warbler

Chaffinch 3

Blackbird

Wren - a retrap from earlier in the spring

Reed Bunting 2

27th March 2010

2010-03-27T21:19:00.002Z

We had the first ringing session of the year this morning and despite getting the time of dawn wrong we managed a respectable catch of 17 birds. The site was full of Chiffchaffs, recently returned and three Buzzards cruised overhead. The catch comprised of:

2 Dunnocks
2 Robins
2 Bullfinches (male & female)
1 Goldcrest (male)
2 Blackbirds
5 Long-tailed Tits
1 Great Tit (male)
2 Wrens

Hopefully a few pictures should follow and we hope to feature regular updates from sessions.

2010

2010-03-14T20:37:00.002Z

With any luck ringing should recommence at Tophill Low fairly soon after a very cold winter which now seems to be abating. Updates will be posted here hopefully with some informative pictures and information on the birds we ring. In the meantime try the new Tophill Low Blog.

Saturday 24th October

2009-10-26T22:53:00.003Z

A brief session was quickly halted by inclement weather as an overcast morning with drizzle and high winds made ringing extremely difficult and the nets filled with wind-bown leaves. After two net rounds the nets were closed. The only bird caught was a re-trap of a Wren from the first session in September. This was a bird of the year and has seemingly established itself a territory as it was caught in the same net as previously. No need to google map that movement...

Ringed Great Black-backed Gull

2009-10-14T22:54:00.009+01:00

A colour ringed Great Black-backed Gull was found moribund by Richard Hampshire on O reservoir and subsequently picked up dead on the 9th October. The bird proved to originate from Mandal, Norway. It was ringed as a pulli in 2006 and can be seen to be a 4th calender year bird with plumage nearing adulthood.

Here is the (badly) translated response from Norway:

Re-discovery of a color mark gull

Thanks for your report of a color mark shovel. Below you will find the details. About the bird would be dead and you still have the ring (s), please send them to us. Re-discovery of our gulls can be reported to the Lista ringing Group, Box 171, 4558 Vanse, at email: clifu@c2i.net or http://www.ringmerking.no/cr.

CR-code Black ring with white code for large gulls 4 or 5 characters LBNW (JJ16); RBM
Ringing Central Stavanger (Norway) Call Number 391481
Art Svartbak Larus marinus Gender Unknown Age Pullus Date 25.06 2006 (--:--) Exactly to the day
Location Lille Vengelsholme, Mandal, Vest-Agder, Norway - 57 ° 58'10 "N 007 ° 32'26" E
Condition I live and probably healthy, and freed by a ring detect
Circumstances Deliberate human: found in other ways (eg, captured, killed with poison, controlled with binoculars).Trapped or hunted (not shot).
Brands (e) Helberg, Morten -- Art

Svartbak Larus marinus Gender Unknown Age Unknown Date 09.10 2009 (17:00) Exactly the day
Location Tophill Low Nature Reserve., Humberside, Great Britain - 55 ° 54'52 "N 000 ° 22'23" W
Habitat / Locality type Inland Reservoir
Additional Information Around 40 birds roosting nightly Wed Tophill Low `s` O `Reservoir. This individual found in condition of exhaustion at 13:00 hours but still flighty. Returned to find bird dead at 17:00.
Condition Recently, death - within approximately one week
Circumstances Natural causes: diseases and other natural defects.
Sick, not more closely described.
Observers Hampshire, Richard -- 1202 Days, 532 km, 247 °

View Great Black-backed Gull in a larger map

You may need to zoom out on the map to see both points of interest - on my browser it doesn't seem to like showing both at the same time.

Hull Valley Wildlife Group

2009-09-20T20:33:00.002+01:00

The Hull Valley Wildlife Group would like us to make it clear that they are not affiliated in ANY way with ringing at Tophill Low and that there is no crossover in membership. If you want to discuss anything with us then please leave a comment on the blog. A couple of people have taken umbrage with the involvement of a children in the ringing and it should be noted that the children are strictly supervised at all times and have been around ringing sites since they were very young. They are experienced in handling small birds and every care to enhance the birds welfare during the ringing process.

Ringing 22nd August 2009

2009-08-22T21:10:00.007+01:00

The first ringing session at Tophill Low started at 5 this morning and produced a good catch of 31 individual birds, ideal for getting to know the site. The catch included 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Reed Warblers, 2 Sedge Warblers, 2 Woodpigeon, Garden Warbler, several Whitethroats and Blackcaps, Blackbirds and Song Thrushes and a sprinkling of Dunnocks and Robins. Sadly we left an hour before the Osprey was seen. Only a handful of adult birds were involved (1 Woodpigeon and 1 male Blackbird spring to mind) and there were no retraps.

First session

2009-08-20T23:34:00.002+01:00

Currently the first ringing session for the group is planned for Saturday 22nd August - an early get up and a soft start to test out the newly cut ringing lanes in south scrub. Hopefully I should be able to post with some of the results over the weekend.

Ringing at Tophill Low

2009-08-07T23:15:00.002+01:00

Welcome to Ring at Tophill Low's homepage in the blogosphere. On this site we hope to have photos of the birds we ring, a guide to the site and aims of our ringing programme at Tophill Low.

Tophill Low is a water pumping station between Beverley and Driffield in East Yorkshire set alongside the River Hull. Created on the site of Tophill Low farm the two reservoirs and associated scrub and wetland are home to a great variety of wildlife. The ringing group has been set up with the intention of regular ringing on site to monitor both passage, wintering and summering bird populations. Tophill Low Nature reserve is administered by Yorkshire water and run by Richard Hampshire working closely with the volunteer group Hull Valley Wildlife Group. Further information can be found on Hull Valley's homepage.

Tophill Low has traditionally been a good site for waders and wildfowl but has recently got a reputation for rarities including Britain's first Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis) in September/October 2008 and recently a Collared Pratincole (Glareola pratincola) that ventured from sites on the river Hull to the south. Other scarce birds in recent years include Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) & Great White Egret (Ardea alba). Nationally important numbers of Common Pochard (Aythya ferina) breed on site alongside several pairs of Common Tern (Sterna hirundo). Little Egrets (Egretta garzetta) are a regular sight and Eurasian Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) winter in small numbers. A large small gull roost occurs in winter comprising mainly of Mew Gull (Larus canus) and Black-headed Gull (Larus ribundus). Large numbers of wildfowl winter on the reservoirs and marshes including some scarcer species such as Smew (Mergellus albellus) which winter regularly in small numbers. Passage periods provide the largest diversity of species with many birds of prey & waders passing through. Passerines & near passerines provide the bulk of the breeding speces on the reserve and scarcer species such as Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur) & Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) may be encountered as well as an array of warblers (Sylviidae).