Recent Recoveries - non-passerines

It has been a whilte since we blogged about recoveries. We detail all the most interesting records in our annual report, but we also try to publish information here when we can. Below are some of the more interesting non-passerine recoveries we've had between April 2022 and December 2023. 

A Common Tern ringed as a chick at Attenborough in 2014 was recaught in Senegal in March 2021 - a distance of 4495km! 

We often receive short-distance Barn Owl recoveries as they move between local nest boxes, but here are a couple of notable movements - a chick ringed by North West Norfolk Ringing Group in 2017 was found dead by us in May 2022 near Elston, a distance of 119km. Another was ringed in Buckinghamshire in 2017 and recaught by us in May 2023, a distance of 151km. Interestingly, the longevity record for Barn Owl is currently 15 years, 7 months and 2 days, and if we recatch one individual later this year we might be on to break that record. A male Barn Owl ringed as a 5 in Gotham on 21/05/2009 was recaught on 15/06/2023 - 14 years and 26 days.

Our colour-ringed Cormorants continue to move around, with several sightings of the same individuals making for interesting life histories as we start to build a bigger picture of their dispersal and seasonal behaviour. All birds were ringed at Attenborough:

- Cormorant CVF ringed as a chick in 2015 was sighted at Holt in Norfolk in January 2023. The same bird spent the Summer of 2019 at Cley Marshes in Norfolk.

- Another Cormorant, CZ3, ringed in April 2023 was sighted only two months later in Merseyside.

- CXS was ringed in 2018 and was seen in November 2022 at Suffolk, and then in August 2023 in Essex.

- CX4 was ringed in 2016, and was seen in September 2022 in Conwy, Wales, but was back at Attenborough a year later.

A Black-headed Gull we ringed as a chick at Attenborough in 2008 was found dead in 2022 on the Isle of Anglesey, Wales. We also have sightings of Black-headed Gulls in Nottinghamshire from South Yorkshire, Sweden, Norway, Lithuania, Poland. And a Black-headed Gull we ringed at Attenborough in May 2019 was resighted in Cork.

On the River Trent, we’ve read colour-rings of Mute Swans from Staffordshire and Greater Manchester. 

Holly 

Barn Owl ringing

Common Tern chick