Recent Recoveries

A number of Barn owl recoveries have come in, following the annual rounds of the nest boxes. Firstly, the more notable ones:

- A bird ringed in Scredington in June 2006 has been controlled in Eaton, Leics, exactly 4000 days after it was ringed.
- A bird ringed at Stathern in 2016 has been controlled further east, near Spalding in July this year.
- A bird originally captured near Salisbury Plain in August 2012, was controlled by the group at a Box at Hawton in May 2016.

And other short-term, more local recoveries:
- A bird ringed as a youngster in Hoveringham in 2014 was controlled at Hawton in June this year.
- A bird ringed as a youngster in Morton in 2016 was controlled at Kneeton in June this year.
- A bird ringed by Birklands RG as a youngster at the Newark Sewage Treatment works in 2014 was controlled at Kirklington in June this year.
- A Rushcliffe Barn Owl Project bird, ringed as a youngster in Keyworth in 2016 was controlled at Widmerpool in June this year.
- A bird ringed as a youngster in Old Dalby in 2016 was controlled at Stathern in May this year.
- A bird ringed as a youngster in Girton in 2016 was controlled at a nearby Box in the same area in June this year.
- A Rushcliffe Barn owl project bird, ringed as a youngster in Hickling in 2016, was controlled at Colston Bassett in June this year.
- Another Rushcliffe Barn owl project bird, ringed as a youngster in Bunny in 2016 was controlled at Stathern in May this year.
- And finally, a bird ringed as a youngster in Normanton in 2016 was found injured by a member of the public in Stamford in August, its fate is unknown.

In other news...

A Kestrel, ringed in Old Dalby as a youngster, has been controlled as an adult at a box near Halam in June this year.

An Attenborough-born Common Tern, ringed in 2011, was seen at Seaforth NR, Merseyside in July this year, having had its ring read in the field.

A Woodpigeon, a bird not ringed in numbers by the group, has been found dead on the roads near Findern, Derby in August. It had originally been ringed in Toton in September 2016

A Sand Martin controlled at the Attenborough colony in July this year had originally been ringed at Redhill Marina by Ratcliffe-on-Soar in 2014.

A Blackcap ringed at Holme Pierrepont in 2015 has been controlled in North Notts, being captured at a site near Cottam in June.

One of the group's Pied Flycatchers, from the nestbox project in Wales, has been controlled at a Box in Shropshire in May this year. It had originally been ringed as a chick in 2016.

One of the many juvenile Starlings ringed in the Meadows in the spring of 2015 was found dying in nearby Wilford in August this year.

And finally a bit of good news - the group has claimed the Goldfinch longevity record, for one of its birds ringed on 23rd May 2007. Unfortunately this bird was found dead, but had travelled down to Devon, where it was picked up and reported in Barnstaple. This is 10 years and 3 months after it was initially ringed in Bingham by old group member John Black (as an age 5 - so it would have been around 11 years old).

It beats the previous record set at the end of last year in Suffolk by just under 3 months (though that bird was controlled so could still be going strong!).

The previous top 3 looked like this:

V451151 First-year Male 28-12-2006 Chelmondiston: 51°59'N 1°12'E (Suffolk)
Caught by ringer 30-12-2016 Chelmondiston: 51°59'N 1°12'E (Suffolk) 0km 10y 0m 2d

N855368 First-year Female 13-03-2002 Parkhead, Sheffield: 53°20'N 1°32'W (South Yorkshire)
Freshly dead 23-06-2010 Sheffield: 53°23'N 1°30'W (South Yorkshire) 8km NNE 8y 3m 10d

T971203 First-year Male 30-11-2005 East Grinstead: 51°6'N 0°0'W (West Sussex)
Freshly dead (injury) 24-01-2014 East Grinstead: c. 51°7'N 0°0'W (West Sussex) 0km 8y 1m 25d

Tom