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Birds photographed at the ringing session at Far Pasture in October 2006. [ Photos Ray Wilby (1st four and Vicky Catley last two)   ]
Male Bullfinch	Tree-creeper
Redwing	Dunnock
Goldcrest	Long-tailed Tit

Merlin caught in September 2006 whilst netting Swallows roosting at Lamesley reedbeds [Photo: Richard Barnes]

Little Owl [Gordon Pollinger]

General ringing results

Catches increased as temperatures dropped and birds began to return to feeding
stations. Undoubtedly the bird of the month was Fieldfare as it represented a garden
first and somewhat suprisingly is only the second to be caught by Durham Ringing
Group in the past 10 years. Goldcrest at Clara Vale was the sites 8th while the Long
Tailed Tits on the same day doubled the previous highest single catch there. The
Greenfinch population in Clara Vale certainly know where to find sunflower seed as
the numbers caught continue to increase, the same can be said of Goldfinch in Barmoor
as they are attracted to niger. Retrapped birds from Clara Vale included 3 Great
Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tits first caught 29.11.98, 14.01.01, 29.05.01 & 01.09.02,
Blue Tit 01.09.02, Nuthatch 22.02.02 and Blackbid 12.12.01.
"The Legend" returned to ringing for the first time in several months and was rewarded
with good numbers of Blue & Coal Tit, had it not been for the House Sparrows it would
probably have felt like a return to Thornley.

 

 

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Ringing Controls and Recoveries

(855 to date)

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Clara Vale LNR

Some ringing was done on the 27th December 2004 at the feeding station with Richard Barnes and Gordon Pollinger. Amongst the common birds trapped were Yellow Bunting and Nuthatch as can be seen below.

 

Nuthatch (left) and Yellowhammer were trapped on 27th.

Chiffchaff trapped on 3rd April

Yellowhammer (left) and female Bullfinch were also trapped on 3rd April

 

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Request for information on

Dippers

On the Derwent 22nd May 2005 [Steven Fryer]

A project is currently underway studying our local Dippers and can we ask you for your sightings of colour-ringed Dippers? It is the juveniles we are interested in. They have a single red colour-ring on the left leg (and BTO ring on right leg). Even a pizza delivery boy or apprentice birder should be able to see that. We don't expect anyone to get the colour-combinations of the adults (you need a scope and ID skills to get those). The juvs can disperse out of our study area, some males stay locally but all the females move. So we would be interested to know how far afield they are going. Places to look will be along the upper Derwent, lower Tyne, the Team and Browney (and possibly Wear). We have ringed about 30 pulli in Gateshead so far this year, with still a few more to do. A couple of nests have failed due to flooding and 2 to vandalism (nests in obvious places near lots of people). The first fledged juv was seen 11th May.

Please email Doctor Gadwall with any sightings

Many sightings to date but all have been local. We do not as yet know the history of the following two.

One by the bridge at Swalwell roundabout had a red ring on one leg and blue and white on the other on 2nd July 2004.
Feb 2004 - This bird is a first year female who bred at Swalwell bridge last year (2004). She is still in the area, now with a new mate.

One on the 9th December at 2-30pm with yellow ring on left leg, red ring or possibly red and white ring on right spotted on River Derwent Between Nine arches bridge and downstream weir.
This bird unfortunately does not have enough info to be identified.

All the dippers have four rings, a BTO ring on (generally) the right leg with a colour ring above it and two colour rings on the left leg.

Derwent Walk CP - 4th March 2005. One of the Dippers had an Orangey Red ring on both legs, the other was more difficult to make out in fading light but looked like a metal ring on both legs.

4th May - One on the river opposite Clockburn Lake had Red (Top) and White rings on right leg, White (Top) and Pink rings on left. Two adults on the river further up towards the viaduct were presumably displaying (not actually sure what they were doing) but were very active, at times facing each other on a log and doing a sort of dipping dance, then chasing around and diving under water and splashing about on the surface. They didn't stay still for long enough to make the rings out properly though one of them did have the red and white rings on the right leg. Also an unrung juvenile.

from the Grampian Ringing Group, Aberdeen

A request for sightings of colour-ringed Waxwings was previously posted through various channels. We have now colour-ringed nearly 300 birds in and around Aberdeen City, with the majority of birds ringed during the initial influx of Waxwings into the UK during the end of October and beginning of November.
It appears that the birds which arrived in our region during the initial influx have now left NE Scotland as we can only find a few of these birds around the city. Sightings of colour-ringed birds in Fife, Glasgow, 2 in Lancashire (from Burnley and Barrow) and 1 in the Netherlands confirms this and that the recent arrival of birds into North-West of England probably involves these initial birds. It seems likely that there are now many more colour-ringed birds in central Scotland and south of the border than several weeks ago.
We would be very keen to receive any further sightings of colour-ringed birds and ask observers to check all birds for colour rings. Can I ask that this request be also published on local web-sites that I don't have access to so that this request reaches as many observers as possible.
Many thanks to those observers who have already reported sightings. Any sightings will be acknowledged and a history of the bird will be supplied, detailing ringing data and movements (if any previous).

kind regards

Paul Baxter / Raymond Duncan

Grampian Ringing Group, Aberdeen.

 

You can email Doctor Gadwall with any sightings and he will pass it on to the ringing group.

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Red Kites

Any sightings (wing tag numbers etc.) and observation of interesting behaviour would be very welcome. Please contact: -
Northern Kites - Office Suite 3b, 33 St Mary's Green, Front Street, Whickham, Tyne & Wear, NE16 4DN

Telephone - 0191 496 1555

Or email them to Doctor Gadwall and he will pass your records on to the Project Team.

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Kittiwakes

2004 - About 80 nests were in use at the Kittiwake Tower. This is approximatley 10% down on last year. 109 adults were counted there on 17th June. later 36 young were ringed out of 51 present in July.