Results from colour-ring reading (2 Viewers)

[Steve Lister]

In recent years I have become a somewhat obsessive ring-reader. It started with Cormorants and Mute Swans at Rutland Water, then Pink-footed Geese in Norfolk, and now I spend ages peering through a 75x eyepiece at gulls' legs on a local rubbish tip.

I am starting this thread to flag up the interesting info that ring-readers get back from their efforts. And maybe to encourage more people to start noting colour-rings.

If anyone needs help tracing a colour-ring then this thread could be the place to post it.

Steve

 

[Steve Lister]

To start off with, last week I spent four hours with 1300 Lesser Black-backed Gulls on Albert Village tip in Leicestershire.

There were at least ten colour-ringed birds and I managed to read five of them completely and one partially. Using the details on the excellent website www.cr-birding.be I have traced all six and have already had information back about five:

A first-summer ringed in northwest Germany (details awaited)
An adult ringed after recuperating from poisoning on a tip in southern Spain this April
A second-summer ringed as a chick in an industrial complex in Holland in 2009 and seen in Oxfordshire in 2010
A second-summer ringed on Gloucester landfill site in 2010
A second-summer ringed in southern Norway
A second-summer ringed as a chick in northern France in 2009 and seen in Spain in 2010

So six rings, six countries. Amazing.

Steve

 

[luke]

I can second that ring reading is a great thing and good fun. I am fortunate to work at Radipole lake where Med Gull can number over 300 in winter. One one afternoon I have noted birds from 5 different countries including one from Hungary! I also had one from serbia last winter. I have also been involved with colour ringing herring gulls in Weymouth so can't wait until I start finding these birds!

 

[IanF]

We get quite a few waders passing through my area so we get a few colour rings throughout the year on such birds as Knot, Bklack-tailed Godwit, Sanderling, Common Sandpiper etc. The last two winters we've had a couple colour ringed Shags as well that I've managed to read.

A few Avocet chicks have been colour ringed the last two years as well as seeing the odd bird from other areas moving in. This year from colour rings we saw a bird hatched locally in 2010 nesting and another hatched 2010 in Washington successfully raise three chicks. That info wouldn't have been picked up without colour ringing.

I've had some pretty speedy replies using the euring website and tracing the ringer to contact directly. However when the ringing scheme can't be identified the BTO scheme has been proving pretty unreliable with either no response from them or at best taking several months.

 

[Steve Lister]

We saw a Tufted Duck with a nasal saddle (not too keen on them to be honest) at Rutland Water on Tuesday....

Just had a commendably quick reply from the ringer, traced via www.cr-birding - it was ringed and saddled in northern France in November 2009.

Steve

 

[Steve Lister]

Another nasal saddled Tufted Duck was seen by Dave Gray at Watermead Country park, Leicester at the end of October. It turned out to have been a female that was caught while breeding in the Czech Republic - on the face of it a weird movement. And it had been seen on a fishing pond in south Derbyshire just before Dave saw it.

Steve

 

[IanF]

A colour ringed Purple Sandpiper seen at Whitburn, County Durham on 19/03/2011 and then again at Hartlepool Headland on 06/11/2011 was ringed at Svalbard / Spitzbergen on 02/09/2010 as a juvenile female.

 

[IanF]

Rather spookily I was just checking photos of colour ringed birds I took this morning when I came across another Purple Sandpiper with a lime green flag with lettering EJT.

Ringing details - ringed 18.09 2009 Trondsenneset, Svalbard (Spitsbergen)

 

[IanF]

Another colour ringed bird from yesterday was a Knot with a green flag and colour rings.

The ring combination fits with those ringed in the Netherlands. I've sent off details so hopefully I'll receive a response with more info as to when and where it was ringed.

We've lots of colour ringed Curlew around at present as well but as I'm still awaiting a response from some submitted last year and this Spring I'm not bothering to send them in.

 

[IanF]

A speedy response to my colour ring report of the knot. It took less than 24 hrs to get a reply.

The bird was ringed at De Richel, Netherlands on 02/09/2011. This is the first sighting since it was ringed.

The same bird was present about a mile away at Newburn Bridge this afternoon in amongst a large group of Knot including another Knot with just a metal ring.

 

[Jon Turner]

We've lots of colour ringed Curlew around at present as well but as I'm still awaiting a response from some submitted last year and this Spring I'm not bothering to send them in.

Weird isn't it? Why do they bother when they can't be bothered to reply to field sightings? I remember reading the colour rings on a Herring Gull in Scotland years ago, but no-one seemed to know anything about it!

However there are great exceptions - the Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit I emailed and had a reply by return, and your Knot do make it worthwhile.

The ringers of colour-ringed Spoonbills are also great to get a response.

 

[Steve Lister]

Most emails direct to the ringers get a reply these days.
And the new cr-birding.org website does have a bit for each scheme that tells you whether the people involved will reply.
Exceptions at the moment are Black-headed Gulls ringed at Cotswold Water Park, many gulls ringed in the Netherlands and some Mute Swans ringed in Staffordshire.

Steve

 

[TwoDipsfromAmsterdam]

Steve

Whereabouts in northern France was your Rutland Water Tufted Duck marked with the nasal saddle? I had a Tufted near Utrecht a couple of weeks back and reported it through cr-birding. I got a quick reply that it had been marked in France and that the group responsible would let me have more details. I've heard nothing since. Maybe mine was marked at the same place as yours. My bird had a green saddle with the letters HT.

David

 

[TGB]

Picking up on Steve's post a couple above this one. I ring the Black-headed Gulls which are done in Berkshire under the same project as the Cotswold Water Park ones and I've been working with John on this for three years and know that he is very conscientious about getting results out to people. Earlier this year I know he had an email problem and I can't remember the ultimate cause - but it was either a finders email getting classed as Spam by his system or his reply getting classed as spam by the finders email system.

If you have any outstanding sightings from this project then please PM me on Birdforum or send your sightings to gulls 'at' rbringing.co.uk

Cheers

Tim

 

[Steve Lister]

Steve

Whereabouts in northern France was your Rutland Water Tufted Duck marked with the nasal saddle? I had a Tufted near Utrecht a couple of weeks back and reported it through cr-birding. I got a quick reply that it had been marked in France and that the group responsible would let me have more details. I've heard nothing since. Maybe mine was marked at the same place as yours. My bird had a green saddle with the letters HT.

David

There have been four Tufted Ducks with pale blue nasal saddles seen in Leics/Rutland this year and all have been ringed at St Philbert de Grand Lieu in northern France.

Steve

 

[Clive A]

There have been four Tufted Ducks with pale blue nasal saddles seen in Leics/Rutland this year and all have been ringed at St Philbert de Grand Lieu in northern France.

Steve

We have a Tufted, at Carsington Water in Derbyshire, also ringed at St Philbert de Grand Lieu.

 

[AndyK]

I had a mute swan with an orange ring tag on lower leg, tried for ages to figure out how to report but couldnt make any sense of the CR birding website.

 

[Steve Lister]

I had a mute swan with an orange ring tag on lower leg, tried for ages to figure out how to report but couldnt make any sense of the CR birding website.

Did you make a note of the code on the ring?

Steve

 

[AndyK]

Did you make a note of the code on the ring?

Steve

P7A on orange tag, I wonder if its a partial read as leg is in water? I tried the identifier thing where you put in code type but no luck?

English species name: Mute Swan
Colour ring type: Legring one coded
Colour-ring colour: Orange (O)
Colour ring code: Three alpha/numeric code (3 letters/numbers)

Then i tried the left tibia lower, nothing came up, left tarsus lower comes up with 1 c-ring (dont understand) and doesnt do anything? I clicked apply but nothing happens, what am I doing wrong?

 

[Steve Lister]

Just send an email to [email protected]

I think Mute Swan is yet to be properly transferred to the new version of the colour ringing website and so only recently registered schemes come up when you do what you did. I had the same problem with LBB Gull recently.

Steve