Ringing Report 2005

After a gap of a decade, 2005 finally saw me returning to serious ringing. While effort was necessarily confined due to family and work responsibilities, I was able to erect up to eight mist-nets at Ty Coed to sample the spring and autumn migrations, while also using a new House Trap to capture finches in the garden (primarily during the winter and summer periods). Some effort was also made during March and April to ring Wheatears at Jaonneusse Bay using spring nets, while funnel traps enabled a modest return to my former studies of Moorhens with 11 birds ringed. Finally due to the generosity of Jamie Hooper I was welcomed back into the seabird ringing studies that he had taken over when I suspended my ringing activities in 1994. We made very successful visits to ring Northern Gannets, European Shags and Great Cormorants.

At the end of the year the surprisingly high total of 2245 birds of 46 species had been ringed. This total included two new species ringed – Little Egret (four pulli on Jethou) and Pallas’ Warbler (ringed in November at Ty Coed).

Seldom ringed species included:- Eurasian Wigeon (one), Eurasian Sparrowhawk (two), Eurasian Woodcock (one), Barn Owl (two), Common Grasshopper Warbler (one) and Yellow-browed warbler (two). Record totals were achieved for Northern Wheatear (63), Long-tailed Tit (24) and European Greenfinch (643), while other species ringed in higher than usual numbers included:- Northern Gannet (549 = 4^th highest); Mallard (five = joint highest), Blackcap (33 = joint 5^th highest), Great Tit (56 = 4^th highest) and Chaffinch (27 = 5^th highest).

The target set at the start of the year was to see whether I could ring 200 warblers at Ty Coed. Although I thought this to be an ambitious objective, it was achieved with totals of Common Grasshopper Warbler (one), Sedge Warbler (ten), Eurasian Reed Warbler (seven), Greater Whitethroat (one), Garden Warbler (two), Blackcap (33), Pallas’ Warbler (one), Yellow-browed Warbler (two), Common Chiffchaff (112) and Willow Warbler (58). Thus a grant total of 227 warblers, of ten species, were ringed at Ty Coed during the year.

Seabird colonies visited during the summer were The Humps, Herm (on 28^th May and 9^th June), Jethou (9^th June), L’Etac de Serk (11^th June), Les Etacs, Alderney (20^th June) and Ortac, Alderney (23^rd June). These visits resulted in my ringing of 549 Northern Gannets, 16 Great Cormorants, 289 European Shags, three Great Black-backed Gulls and three Common Guillemots – in addition to four nestling Little Egrets.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the year with the passerine ringing was the ringing of two Yellow-browed Warblers and a Pallas’ Warbler at Ty Coed during the late autumn; no small rewards for the development of the Ty Coed Bird Reserve!

By the end of the year my ringing total had grown to 46,678 birds of 125 species.

Eleven foreign recoveries were reported during 2005; all of them seabirds as follows: - Northern Gannet (six), European Shag (three) and Lesser Black-backed Gull (two). The only foreign-ringed bird caught during the year was European Greenfinch from England.