Recent Recoveries

The most recent batch of reports from the BTO comprised 10 recoveries and 1 control.
As usual, the bulk were made up of owl recoveries, with 5 Barn Owl and 1 Little Owl. Not suprisingly 5 of the recoveries were dead birds, 4 of which were ringed as chicks and failed to make it beyond their first 6 months; life really is quite tough for these birds.

Probably the most interesting was a Barn Owl ringed at Upper Broughton in July 2011 which travelled 82km in 2 months where it flew into power lines and died in South Yorkshire, illustrating just how far young birds can disperse after fledging.

Happily one Barn Owl ringed at Barton-in-Fabis in 2008 was still doing well at Elton this summer.

Other birds included a Tree Sparrow ringed as a chick at Attenborough in June found dead in a nestbox a month later and a juvenile Sedge Warbler ringed at Bestwood in August trapped in Grantham during the same month and putting on a bit of weight ready for migration.

Speaking of migration, a juvenile Blackcap ringed at Holme Pierrepont this September turned up at East Bedfont in Greater London having travelled 174km in just 7 days whilst gaining weight also, this bird really was heading somewhere!

The control was a Reed Warbler ringed as a juvenile at Marston Sewage Works in Grantham back in July 2010 which we picked up on 3 July 2011 at Holme Pierrepont, again strongly suggesting that birds return to the general area where they were born / were present at previously.

This is the kind of stuff that makes ringing really interesting.

Ian