Northamptonshire Bird Club: Northants Ringing Group update

Thursday 25 November 2021

Northants Ringing Group update

Northants Ringing Group (NRG).

Currently the group has twenty-one members comprising fourteen qualified ringers, of whom five have training endorsements, and seven trainees.

The main ringing sites are Pitsford Reservoir, Stortons Nature Reserve, Harrington Airfield and Linford Lakes Nature Reserve, which although it is in Buckinghamshire is only about two miles from the County border and BTO allows it to be within the Northamptonshire figures. There are other numerous sites where ringing is conducted within Northamptonshire by group members.

This year, so far, the group has ringed over 7,009 new birds and re-trapped 1,780 birds. Of the 1,780 birds that have been re-caught only fifteen were ringed by other groups/individuals either within the County or farther afield. Interestingly Linford Lakes Nature Reserve has been a good place for control Reed Warblers this year with four having been ringed outside the county, one from Rutland Water, one from Marston Vale Country Park Bedfordshire, one from Baden Down Farm Wiltshire and one from Girande in France. The French bird was originally ringed in August 2017 as a juvenile, possibly having been hatched in the UK and on the start of its migration, and by the time it was caught at Linford in July it will have made eight journeys to and from sub–Saharan Africa.

Map 1 below shows the original ringing location of birds caught by NRG members, known as controls, although the bulk were originally ringed in the UK.

Map 2 below shows the location of recoveries for birds that were ringed by NRG members. The Red flag indicates that unfortunately the bird was found dead. In the UK, the bulk of the ‘Red’ recoveries were the result of predation by cats.

Map 3 below shows the detail that is entered on Google maps when plotting controls or recoveries. These maps are currently only available to NRG members.

In July two members of NRG made what has become, Covid notwithstanding, an annual pilgrimage to the island of Skokholm, known as Dream Island by the wardens. Chris Payne had previously installed some cameras into a specially built Storm Petrol nesting wall, known as the Petrol Station. This year Chris obtained some excellent footage of the comings and goings of the Storm Petrols and next year plans are in the making for Chris to visit with two sound recordists to place at least eight cameras and microphones into the wall to continue their research into the secretive life of this amazing little bird.