Reading band (ring) numbers in the field

[Rufus]

Draco's item about Peregrines on the roof prompted me to think how rarely I have heard of people reading band (in Pommiespeak that's ring) numbers in the field. Most recoveries are found dead or retrapped by banders who read the number in the hand.

I wonder if any BF birders have tales to tell or tips to share on reading band numbers? I remember years ago reading in a BTO publication of someone luring Black-headed Gulls close by feeding them in a London park and reading band numbers, through binocs if I remember rightly.

My own single success in many years of birdwatching was with a White-breasted Sea-eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) perched on a power pole not far north of Adelaide, South Australia. That bird had been banded in the nest on Kangaroo Island.

Rufus

[Michael Frankis]

Depends on the ring. With big darvic (plastic) colour rings on swans & geese, its quite easy to read them with a scope even from a distance. But with ordinary metal rings, it is very difficult to get the number accurately.

A while back there was a regular Mediterranean Gull at Craster in Northumberland which had a ring on. Someone sat down on the rocks there, scattered bread all round himself, and waited. The bird came real close, and he managed to read the number. Or so he thought - the number was sent off, and the reply came back to say it was a Lapwing, ringed in Belgium. All it needs is one digit wrong!

Michael

[satrow]

Hi Rufus,
I managed to read the ring number of a Pied Wagtail which had taken to using the ridge of a house to launch attacks on the local insect population. Some patience was required as only 2 or 3 characters could be read at a time.
It had been ringed in Gloucestershire @ 50Km away a few months earlier. Used Kowa TSN1 scope with 25x eyepiece. Otherwise failed on a few others, Reed Bunting for instance.
Colour-ringed Mute Swans and Cormorants don't count, do they?

Andy.

[Hanno]

I have seen a few waders in South Vietnam with colored bands. The combination of colors won't give you the exact date they were banded, but the year and the place. Turns out the birds were ringed in Northern Australia.

[Swift]

One way is to Digi-scope them and try and blow the number up , i have read gulls by using bread and i have also read Coots and the odd duck if they come out of the water.

[IanF]

In January of this year I took a photo of a Sanderling with coloured plastic rings. I sent off a query about the rings and from the colours themselves and through the order they are placed on the legs it was established bythe WWT at Slimbridge that the bird was ringed on 28th May 1979 at Teesmouth, making it a bird born in Summer 1978. One old bird !

[LMG]

It would be very difficult to read the number on an ordinary BTO metal ring, even with a scope, as the number is embossed around the ring. I sometimes find it difficult to read, with the bird in the hand, and with my specs on!