If you've ever wondered how many BTO-ringed Goldfinches have been found in Spain, or how many German-ringed Blackcaps have been found in the UK, then the BTO's online ringing report has the answer. The comprehensive report lists all of the most interesting ringing recoveries from the year, not only at the national level, but broken down by county. So equally if you want to know how many Swallows ringed in Cambridgeshire have been found in South Africa, then the answers are all there.
All recoveries in the report link to Google maps, such as for this pair of colour-ring sightings of a Polish-ringed Caspian Gull. (Map: BTO),
This is the only Swallow movement to South Africa reported in 2009; the fourth from Grampian (Map: BTO).
The updated website also now shows:
- national and county ringing totals
- lists of the most ringed species in each county. Admittedly this is Blue Tit in most, but of note are Little Egret (40 of them) in Co. Galway, Pied Flycatcher (1,234) in Powys and Blackcap (11,152) in Sussex)
- list of the counties ringing the most individuals of each species. So for Kestrel, the top three counties are Lincolnshire (258), Wiltshire (175) and Nottinghamshire (163), and for Green Sandpiper, Cornwall (11), Grampian (6) and Lincolnshire (4).
There are only four previous reports of foreign-ringed Marsh Warblers; this was the third from Norway, the others being from Denmark and Belgium. (Map: BTO)
New features have now been added to the site, including maps of all of the movements over 20km and details of current longevity records. The 2009 report listed several new records, including Tufted Duck (24 years), Buzzard (25 years), Curlew (31 years), Black-headed Gull (29 years), Puffin (34 years) and Garden Warbler (9 years 9 months).
This Manx Shearwater was one of the furthest-travelled birds in 2009. Almost 200 have been found in Brazil over the years. (Map: BTO)
Gannet records in the Mediterranean are remarkably common, and this is the third to be found in Tunisia. (Map: BTO)
Oh, and the answers to the above questions were: 268 (BTO-ringed Goldfinches in Spain), 35 (German-ringed Blackcaps in the UK), and 6 (Cambridgeshire Swallows in South Africa).
