Ring-reading

Group members will know that I like to get out ring-reading when I can, and although the extent of what I do is pretty small, I get a great deal of pleasure from finding ringed birds and reporting them, and it gives a little extra value to my birding.

I don’t get out as much as I’d like, but the main areas I cover are Trent Bridge and Victoria Embankment, Stoke Bardolph, and other sites I usually bird at like Holme Pierrepont and Colwick. The main target is Black-headed gulls, and over the years I have managed to find a few birds. Rewards are slim and it can be very disappointing to find a big flock, hungry for bread, without any ringed birds. Finding a ringed bird, especially if its got a handy colour ring on, is therefore very rewarding.

I have found birds that have been ringed in numerous countries, including Poland, Norway, The Netherlands and Denmark, as well as a small number of British ringed birds. It isn’t always easy, and along the way I have misread some colour-rings and therefore lost the chance at finding out life-histories. Most frustrating is attempting to read unfamiliar metal rings, and just this year I have found 3 Finnish metal-ringed birds that were always too flighty to get a full code from. (Finnish rings have an alpha-numeric code separated with a full stop, just to make things complicated!)

Bycatch from this activity includes ringed geese and swans. The Canada Geese are all from the Nottingham Uni project, but I feel I have added value to their project by regularly reporting birds, though sightings from this project have dropped off somewhat, perhaps due to the birds not being ringed for the last few years. In March I stepped up efforts and in doing so discovered a few flocks of Mute Swans, so managed a few ring numbers there too – particularly easy as they allow you to actually handle the ring to get the code in some cases! I have also read rings of Common Gull, Little Egret, and on wider excursions, waders such as godwits and Avocets. Frustratingly, every Grey Heron and Cormorant I check never seems to have a colour-ring (sorry Jim!).

I just wanted to give a brief outline of my experience of ring-reading, and encourage others to give it a go. I gave it a lot more effort to the end of last winter and hope to continue this effort later in the year. All you need is a site with plenty of birds hanging around, a few loaves of bread, and a bit of patience... Happy hunting!

Tom