Isle of Wight Ringing Group Newsletter March 2021

The last year has been very frustrating for the group as for everybody else. In particular for bird ringing it has meant that we have only been able to ring as separate individuals or last summer with very small numbers of experienced members observing scrupulous social distancing. One serious blow to the group has been that the Covid regulations have made it impossible to maintain our programme of provision for trainees.

Despite these setbacks the last year has been one of many positives for Island bird ringing. In 2020 we caught over 8000 birds. We managed to run two of our Constant Effort Sites  (where the mist net opening times and dates are standardised) which contribute so much to the statistical analysis of songbird population trends.

The British Trust for Ornithology responded to the constraints of Summer 2020 by instigating a special study of garden birds and five of us ran these pilot studies in our gardens. Exciting work was done during our trial sessions at Hersey Nature Reserve with a view to developing another Constant Effort Site there. We continued to monitor the large number of nest boxes at Haseley Manor and ringed all the nestlings. One member experimented with continuing the Constant Effort methodology through the winter.

All this activity resulted in some interesting records. One of us ringed over 500 Goldfinches during the Autumn in his garden in Bembridge. His theory that these were migratory flocks of young birds was confirmed when one was found in mid France later in the year.

3 birds ringed on the Island in previous years were found on the Continent: a Black-headed Gull in the Netherlands nearly 7 years later; a Blackcap in France over 5 years later; and a Blackbird in Norway 3 years later. During the year 15 birds were recorded moving between the Island and the mainland: 3 Blackcaps,1 Reed Warbler, 2 Greenfinches,1 Willow Warbler, 5 Chiffchaffs, 1 Robin and 1 Lesser Redpoll.

We are planning a similarly active and enjoyable 2021 though our plans are tempered by the uncertainty of the current restrictions. In particular we are looking at how we can restart our Trainee programme and how we can welcome back visitors to come and see what ringing involves and to enjoy seeing birds in the hand. We are optimistic that as the year progresses we will be able to do both.

We hope you found these notes of interest. If you have any comments we would be delighted to receive them at info@iwringinggroup.org.uk. If you have specific queries about becoming a trainee we suggest that, in addition to contacting us at info@iwringinggroup.org.uk , you also go to the British Trust for Ornithology website ( https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/ringing/about-ringing/faqs ) to read more about what ringing involves.

Future communications and newsletters

We know how annoying unwanted emails can be so If you would like to receive further communications from us in the future can you please say so by contacting us at info@iwringinggroup.org.uk .

To those who wish to, we look forward to welcoming you at a ringing session when circumstances permit.