Ecological Data

Bird Ringing

Introduction

British Trust for Ornithology trained bird ringers have been ringing at Wildgoose for over 40 years.

In the last 10 years around 1000 birds per year have been ringed of 60 species. The reserve is particularly good for finches and warblers in late summer and autumn. Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps are the most frequently ringed species, followed by Reed Warblers, Whitethroats, Willow and Garden Warblers. The site has also turned up occasional rarities including a Barred Warbler and Yellow-browed Warblers. In autumn and winter there are good numbers of Reed Buntings, Meadow Pipits, Redwings and Linnets.

At the beginning of 2021 Wildgoose Ringing Group was formed to continue ringing on and around the Wildgoose reserve. By the end of our first year we will have ringed over 800 birds of 40 species and handled more that 150 that we had previous ringed.

2022 saw the return of 'Calypso' our Wildgoose satellite tagged Cuckoo to it's patch mainly south east of the reserve. Calypso had visited a dozen countries to get to the Congo rainforest where is stayed for 4 months and then 14 countries via west Africa to get back to its Worcestershire breeding grounds where it stayed less than 2 months.

This years southward migration started well, flying straight to a familiar site in the south of France. Maybe drought and food shortage was a problem, it moved east to N Italy where it died.

However in May another Cuckoo Grove II was tagged at Wildgoose. Grove II set off much earlier and by 12th July was safely south of the Sahara. You can follow Grove II and the other BTO tagged Cuckoos at:- https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/cuckoo-tracking-project

We worked had in 2022 and made 21 ringing trips to the site. We were joined by visitors from as far away as the USA. We ran a ringing demonstration for the local RSPB group and took time to share what we were doing with staff, students and visitors to the reserve.

In total we caught 1356 birds,1142 new birds and retrapped 214 birds that were already ringed, either in previous years or caught earlier in 2022.These retraps are often the most interesting and give us an insight into the lives of birds. These included:- a Blue Tit 4 years 3 months old, Dunnock 3 years 4 months, Great Tit 4 years 4 months, Long Tailed Tit 4 years 4 months, a Reed Warbler 3 years and two Reed Buntings 5 years 6 months and 5 years 4 months. These are well short of the longevity records for the appropriate species but way more than the average life span!

The 1142 birds comprised 35 species. Over half, 570 were warblers of 9 species. Most are warblers are migratory, though Cetti's Warblers are almost always resident and increasing numbers of Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs over winter. So not surprisingly they produced most of the movements to and from Wildgoose.

A juvenile Blackcap ringed 31st August was caught by other ringers on 11days later in east Sussex. Another Blackcap ringed July 21 was controlled the following July near Bridgenorth. A Chiffchaff ringed Sept 21 was controlled April 22 in Nottinghamshire. A Lesser Redpoll ringed Oct 21 was controlled

Feb 22 Hednesford, Staffs. It's worth noting that all of these movements were noted when the birds were caught again by other ringers.

The full list of birds ringed is given below. The columns are;- Species, birds already ringed, new birds, species total.