Recent recoveries

Now ringing and birding is a lot less restricted, our recoveries are coming in a little more regularly once again. As predicted before Christmas, the Lesser Redpolls that were ringed in huge numbers in the autumn are beginning to get picked up by ringers elsewhere. Sorby Breck ringers in particular are catching very high numbers of Redpoll, especially at their site at Ramsley, and they have controlled two birds ringed by our group in the autumn. These birds were both ringed at Bestwood by Mick, in November and December, and one was controlled at Blackburn Meadows near Rotherham at the end of December, and another at Ramsley in April.

Other Redpoll recoveries include a bird ringed at Bestwood in December, recovered a few miles north at Bilsthorpe only a week later. A bird ringed at Holme Pierrepont on 11 October was recovered in Shropshire in April, and another HP bird, ringed on 16 October was contolled in Edwinstowe in January. Birds are still being caught in decent numbers so we can probably expect some more movements to be reported soon.

Other passerine recoveries are summarised below:

• a Chiffchaff, ringed on 31 August last year at Ramsdale was caught by French ringers at Dourges, Pas-de-Calais in the beginning of October
• another bird ringed at Ramsdale on the same date, a Goldfinch, was recently found dead in Woodborough, at the end of April
• another Goldfinch, ringed in Tom’s Colwick Garden in January, was retrapped by Sorby Breck ringers at a site near Sheffield in April
• a Blackbird ringed at Attenborough in 2016 was found dead on the reserve in February this year
• Probably the most interesting recovery here, involves a Fieldfare, ringed in Cropwell Bishop by another ringer in 2018, and resighted at Devonshire Farm in February. The birds metal ring was read in the field and shows that this rarely recovered species can be faithful to an area in successive winters, as the two sites are only a few kilometres from one another.

Of the few raptor recoveries we have had, a Kestrel ringed in Owthorpe in 2014 is perhaps the most interesting, found dead this year near Beeby in Leicestershire.

More ring-reading from Tom resulted in a Rutland Water-ringed Black-headed Gull being seen at Trent Bridge in November. It had been ringed as a chick in 2019, and had been seen the previous winter at Clumber. The Norweigian Common Gull (J18V), ringed in 2016 and seen last winter at Trent Bridge, was seen again at the same site in March this year. Further afield, the Black-headed gull, ringed at Attenborough in 2019 that spends its time in Cork, has been seen again at the lough in Cork this last winter period.

Tom