Ringing Diary

All of the latest posts related to the Observatory’s bird ringing activities at Flamborough and Bempton.

• Migweek 2025

  Every year FBO runs its Migweek event, offering daily guided walks, daily ringing demonstrations, talks and a migration station providing info, merchandise and chat. The event continues to grow in popularity with this year being the best ever with a big increase in visitor numbers.

  The team ran eleven ringing demonstrations, eight at South Landing and three at RSPB Bempton with each one being very well attended with over fifty members of the public enjoying birds up close, hearing about migration and the importance of the BTO ringing scheme.

  Ringing took place on eight out of the nine days, with just the last Sunday being cancelled due to the strength of the wind, the lack of wind throughout the week enabled us to run thirty six sessions across seven different headland sites. Whilst we didn’t have the easterly winds to bring us rare migrants, we had some favourable winds to bring us migrant thrushes, Redpolls and a flurry of Yellow-browed Warblers.

  This years Migweek saw the team catch a record number of birds, with 1741 birds caught of which 1511 were newly ringed and 230 re-traps or controls.

  Totals for across the headland are shown below:
  

  Species	Totals	Newly ringed	Retraps
  Sparrowhawk	4	3	1
  Kestrel	1	1	0
  Coal Tit	20	13	7
  Blue Tit	90	41	49
  Great Tit	36	14	22
  Long-tailed Tit	81	74	7
  Yellow-browed Warbler	19	17	2
  Chiffchaff	30	28	2
  Reed Warbler	1	1	0
  Blackcap	24	21	3
  Garden Warbler	1	1	0
  Firecrest	1	1	0
  Goldcrest	173	151	22
  Wren	54	39	15
  Tree Creeper	4	2	2
  Starling	19	19	0
  Song Thrush	26	25	1
  Redwing	361	360	1
  Blackbird	275	254	21
  Fieldfare	3	3	0
  Ring Ouzel	1	1	0
  Robin	35	17	18
  Stonechat	2	1	1
  Tree Sparrow	75	68	7
  Dunnock	76	47	29
  Grey Wagtail	1	1	0
  Meadow Pipit	2	2	0
  Rock Pipit	3	3	0
  Chaffinch	34	28	6
  Brambling	4	4	0
  Bullfinch	12	8	4
  Greenfinch	7	7	0
  Linnet	15	14	1
  Mealy Redpoll	2	2	0
  Lesser Redpoll	118	113	5
  Goldfinch	50	46	4
  Yellowhammer	53	53	0
  Reed Bunting	27	27	0
  Totals	1741	1511	230

  

  

  We welcomed Mariana Santos from the Zoological Society of London for two days, Mariana is a wildlife veterinarian sampling wild birds for mosquito borne viruses, in particular the Usutu virus which is causing large declines in Blackbird populations. Mariana was able to sample a good number of Blackbird, Song Thrush and Chiffchaff whilst with us. Mariana is also involved in the Darwin Tree of Life project which aims to sequence the genome of all the ‘complex’ organisms in the world to make them available for research, conservation and more. Whilst with us Mariana was able to sample a Tree Sparrow and a Grey Wagtail for the Tree of Life project, and we were able to connect Mariana with Dr Joe Wynn to enable sharing sample from Yellow-browed Warblers.

  The FBO ringing team is immensely proud to have been able to be involved and help facilitate this important scientific research.

  Information about the Darwin Tree of Life project can be found at https://www.darwintreeoflife.org/

  Below is a newsletter from VB-Radar-the project on mosquito borne viruses.

  

• Constant Effort Site Report 2025

  
  The FBO Ringing Team run a CES site at Thornwick. CES (Constant Effort Site) is a BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) led project aimed at monitoring bird populations through time, in order to aid effective conservation. It seeks to monitor numbers of birds (abundance), the number of births (breeding success or productivity) and deaths, usually recorded as the number that don’t die (survival).

  This data enables the BTO to calculate expected changes in numbers, and at what stage in their lifecycle birds may be affected by environmental changes. They can then try to find out causes for any decline in numbers.

  The CES scheme uses comparisons of the numbers of birds caught each year to provide indices of population change, looking at twenty four species in particular. This is done by standardised mist-netting through the breeding season, consisting of twelve visits between May and August.

  This year the team completed ten out of the twelve sessions, the table below shows the highlights of the last five years participating in this important project, the species in red are ones highlighted by the BTO as being of specific importance to the scheme.

  	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
  Wood Pigeon	0	2	2	1	1
  Meadow Pipit	1	0	0	0	0
  Wren	13	20	10	34	23
  Dunnock	9	18	12	23	15
  Robin	2	5	3	14	12
  Ring Ouzel	1	0	0	0	0
  Blackbird	7	14	9	26	12
  Song Thrush	6	5	4	9	4
  Redwing	1	0	2	0	0
  Grasshopper Warbler	0	0	0	1	0
  Sedge Warbler	9	3	0	1	1
  Reed Warbler	16	16	8	4	11
  Lesser Whitethroat	16	20	21	29	11
  Whitethroat	26	24	20	24	9
  Garden Warbler	1	0	1	0	0
  Blackcap	7	19	12	9	8
  Chiffchaff	7	10	34	33	70
  Willow Warbler	19	37	15	21	6
  Long-tailed Tit	8	12	3	14	4
  Blue Tit	11	16	14	21	10
  Great Tit	8	3	1	11	4
  House Sparrow	1	0	0	0	0
  Tree Sparrow	3	0	0	0	0
  Chaffinch	0	0	4	7	4
  Greenfinch	4	7	8	11	11
  Goldfinch	4	16	8	4	6
  Linnet	9	5	5	5	2
  Bullfinch	10	16	21	23	18
  Yellowhammer	1	0	1	0	0
  Spotted Flycatcher	0	0	0	1	0
  Reed Bunting	4	3	0	2	0
  Total caught	203	274	218	327	284
  New birds ringed	169	221	173	213	181

• September 2025

  

  This month saw the final preparations for Migweek, with the clearing of rides at South Landing being completed. Twenty seven sessions were run across the headland including three at RSPB Bempton. Towards the end of the month we welcomed Dr. Joe Wynn from Liverpool University who is researching where trans-siberian migrants originate from through taking DNA samples; the FBO Ringing Team are contributing to the research by facilitating the capture of some of these birds.

  

  The Trans-Siberian Genoscape Project:
  a call to action

  Far from home, so-called ‘vagrant’ songbirds have captured the imagination of birders and ringers for more than a century. These birds are, however, also of substantial scientific interest, since the errors that brought them to our shores can inform on how birds inherit migratory information and use this information to navigate.

  Tracing vagrant songbirds back to their origin is challenging, since these birds are by definition rare. However, cutting-edge genetic sequencing technology might allow us to determine the geographic origins of vagrant songbirds via comparison to individuals from known breeding locations. This, in essence, is what we propose to do: to collect genetic samples from all over Europe and Asia in order to trace Eastern Palearctic vagrants back to their origins in Siberia.

  Who are we? We are an international collaboration of scientists, ringers and birdwatchers united by our interest in bird migration. Day-to-day project management is led primarily by Dr Joe Wynn (University of Liverpool, UK) and Dr Paul Dufour (Vogelwarte Sempach, Switzerland), though our team is spread out across Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and the UK.

  What are we hoping to achieve? Put simply, our aim is to collect vagrant songbird genetic samples for use in genetic analysis from as representative a cross-section of Europe as possible. We will do this using feather samples, a non-invasive method that has been used for genetic analysis for more than a decade.

  Where do you come in? Projects such as these succeed or fail based on how effectively samples are collected. In collaboration with the BTO, we are looking for experienced ringers from across the UK to help us collect feather samples from Yellow-browed Warbler, Siberian Chiffchaff (subspecies tristis), Pallas’s Leaf Warbler, Radde’s Warbler, Dusky Warbler, Little Bunting, Rustic Bunting and Siberian Lesser Whitethroat (subspecies blythi). If you catch even one bird from any of these species annually, your input could be extremely valuable to our project.

  Joe and the FBO team sampled four Yellow-browed Warbler and a possible Siberian Lesser Whitethroat.

  September saw us catching migrants on the move with a total of 816 birds ringed and 104 re-traps including two Barred Warblers, four Yellow-browed Warblers, five Redstart, one Brambling and one Siskin. Across the country Redpolls were migrating south, we caught 113 Lesser Redpolls and one Mealy Redpoll. Also notable were 152 Goldcrest, 54 Chiffchaff and 27 Meadow Pipit. We continued with our sessions at Thornwick roost targeting hirundines, we caught another 57 Swallows and 11 Sand Martin.

• August 2025

  What an amazing month for our ringing team! Thirty-one sessions were held at eight different sites which yielded a fabulous 1301 birds of which 1163 were newly ringed and 137 were re-traps, with two UK controls and one foreign control.

  Our team ran two public demonstrations on 16th & 17th at RSPB’s ‘Bempton goes wild’ weekend, a very well attended event with lots of eager members of the public seeing birds up close and learning why we ring birds and what is done with the data we record.

  The two sessions at Bempton saw 308 birds caught of which 260 were new and 48 were re-traps, highlights caught included a juvenile Grey Partridge, which was in a covey of eight flushed by the escaped juvenile Saker that had been in the area since 27th June, two Yellow Wagtails, a Pied Flycatcher and 118 Tree sparrows (93 newly ringed).

  Two ringing recoveries from the Bempton event were a Tree Sparrow originally ringed at Spurn on 11th October 2024 and a Sedge Warbler from Marston Sewage Works, Lincolnshire on 26th July 2023.

  Our CES season concluded with the final two sessions giving us 42 new birds and 18 re-traps, a summary of the season will be released here soon.

  Eight sessions were held at Thornwick Roost mainly targeting hirundines and wagtails; we re-caught a Swallow that had been ringed at RSPB Bempton the previous day.
  Five sessions at South Landing were very productive, with 356 new birds, 41 re-traps and a foreign control – a French ringed Sedge Warbler for which we eagerly await details.

  Other highlights from these sessions included 2 Grasshopper Warblers, 2 Tree Pipit, 3 House Martin and a Pied Flycatcher. We also had details of one of our birds being caught elsewhere – a breeding female Sedge Warbler ringed at the roost on the 1st July 2025 was caught at Westdown Plantation, Wiltshire on 17th August 2025, a distance of 345km SSW, it was weighed as 5 grams lighter than when ringed.

  Newly ringed highlights from the month overall included:

  144 Swallow
  130 Whitethroat
  63 Chiffchaff
  49 Sand Martin
  45 Willow Warbler
  41 Blackcap
  20 Lesser Whitethroat

  14 Sedge Warbler
  13 Reed Warbler
  5 Yellow Wagtail
  2 Pied Wagtail
  2 Pied Flycatcher
  2 Grasshopper Warbler
  2 Tree Pipit

  

  

  

• July 2025

  The calm weather of July gave our team more opportunities to hold ringing sessions this month, with 33 run at 7 sites, including Thornwick roost, CES at Thornwick, South Landing and our usual garden sites. A total of 596 birds were caught with 551 of these newly ringed plus 45 re-traps and 3 pulli.

  We ran 2 more CES sessions catching a further 48 new birds and 20 re-traps. The Thornwick roost kept our ringers very busy with a Cetti’s Warbler, Stonechats, Pied Wagtails and Reed Buntings alongside the many hirundines.

  Highlights across the headland included:

  2 Kittiwakes
  1 Herring Gull
  126 Swallow
  99 Sand Martin
  1 Cetti’s Warbler
  32 Chiffchaff (new)
  11 Sedge Warbler (new)
  12 Reed Warbler (new)
  4 Stonechat (new)
  2 Pied Wagtail
  5 Reed Bunting

  The Kittiwakes were ringed as part of an ongoing RAS project (Retrapping Adults for Survival), this standardised project is part of a scheme run by the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology). The aim is to catch or re-sight the target species within the project (in this case Kittiwakes) with a defined study area during the breeding season. The project is used to give adult survival rates, telling us if numbers are stable, increasing or declining. RAS projects are usually aimed at birds not well monitored by other current BTO ringing and especially those of conservation concern.

  

  

• June 2025

  June was a better month for our ringers with a total of 24 sessions held across 7 sites.
  We caught a total of 404 birds caught, with 345 new birds, 59 re-traps and 16 pulli. We ran 3 CES (Constant Effort Site) sessions with a total of 55 new birds and 29 re-traps, the stand out bird of these sessions being a male Whitethroat who we first caught as an adult in August 2020, since then we have caught him every year at CES.

  Whitethroats are a summer visitor to the UK, breeding here and then migrating back to the Africa to the dry Sahel region just south of the Sahara. This is a journey of roughly 3,500 miles, meaning our male Whitethroat has travelled at least 38,500 miles (maybe more as we do not the year he hatched).

  Whitethroats are on the amber conservation list in the uk, they have an average lifespan of 2 years with the longevity record of a ringed bird being aged at 7 years, 9 months and 5 days. June also saw our first 2 evening sessions at the Thornwick roost site, where we ringed :

  39 Sand Martin
  2 Swallow
  14 Sedge Warbler
  1 Reed Warbler
  1 Chiffchaff
  1 Blackbird
  4 Linnet
  2 Reed Bunting
  1 Whitethroat
  1 Wren
  1 Goldfinch

  Other ringing highlights from across the headland included:
  5 Kestrel chicks
  2 Magpie
  1 Jackdaw
  110 Starling
  1 Yellow Wagtail

  

• May 2025

  May saw the start of our Starling season with many juveniles in village gardens, a total of 210 were ringed across the headland this month.

  Our team held 27 ringing session across 5 sites this month, including 2 CES sessions at Thornwick, a total of 341 birds were caught with 248 being new and 93 re-traps.

  Highlights were the aforementioned 210 Starlings, 1 Collared Dove and a Jackdaw.
  The 2 CES sessions proved to be relatively quiet with 15 new birds caught and a further 24 re-traps, our recaptures provide vital data about longevity and site fidelity.

  

• April 2025

  April was a better month for our ringing team with migrant warblers beginning to return. We ran 14 sessions at 3 sites, including our first CES (constant effort site) at Thornwick, 122 birds caught over the month with 89 new and 33 re-traps.

  This month we returned to a site that hasn’t been used for a number of years, Thornwick roost – a small damp, scrubby and reedy area that attracts Warblers, Wagtails and Hirundines.

  Warblers caught over the month included:

  13 Chiffchaff
  9 Blackcap
  6 Sedge Warbler
  5 Lesser Whitethroat
  3 Willow Warbler
  2 Reed Warbler

  

• January to March 2025

  Historically the quietest time for ringing across the Flamborough headland, with the weather often being too windy or wet.

  In January only 5 ringing sessions were held with a total of 35 birds caught of which 25 were new and 10 were re-traps.

  In February 7 sessions in a village garden yielded 20 birds of which 14 were new, the highlight being a lone Redwing.

  March was a more productive month with 17 sessions across 4 sites seeing 107 birds caught of which 86 were newly ringed. The first returning or overwintering warblers were caught with 2 Chiffchaff and 2 Blackcaps, 6 Redwing were also ringed.

  Early march saw the ringing team carrying out work on some of our ringing sites in preparation for the ringing ahead.

  

• Ringing Report 2024

  The purpose of the ringing group will be to gather data on wild birds, especially migrants, which are found in the FBO area. The secondary purpose will be to assist in the training of people in the techniques of trapping, handling and ringing wild birds. In 2021 we trialled a constant effort site (CES) in the scrub at the Thornwick Bay Holiday Camp and this has continued to be operated in each subsequent year. The CES scheme is a national standardised ringing programme started in 1983 and now including c.150 different locations throughout Britain and Ireland. The scheme provides valuable trend information on abundance of adults and juveniles, productivity and also adult survival rates for 24 species of common songbird.

  

  Totals of new birds caught during 2024 by the ringing group on Flamborough Headland were 4252 individuals of 60 species which is a respectable total considering that we are a relatively small team.

  Disappointing to note that there was no new species to be ringed on the headland during 2024.

  The Kingfisher at South Landing was the 2nd record after one at Oceanview in 2020 and the Cetti’s Warbler ringed at Thornwick was the 6th record of a series begun in 2019, highlighting the continual expansion of this species’ range.

  However, the two birds of the year must surely be the Radde’s Warbler caught at South Landing, the 7th for the observatory and the first since 2004; followed by the Great Grey Shrike, also at South Landing, being the 5th for the observatory and only the second this century.

  

  

  The number of Goldfinch (204) was again (following 2023) the highest year total since the Observatory was founded.

  The top 5 species ringed by the Flamborough Bird Observatory Ringing Group during 2024 were: Redwing 615, Starling 546, Tree Sparrow 401, Blackbird 313 and Goldfinch 204. The same five as last year but in a slightly different order. Who would have thought that Redwing could become our number one bird as up to 2018 the grand total ever caught was less than 600! Migrant warbler numbers were a decent upturn compared to last year’s meagre total, with over 500 caught. The Lesser Whitethroat total of 33 ringed was the highest ever and it was a more than satisfactory total for Yellow-browed Warbler with 25 caught, comparing well with the single individual caught last year.

  The use of mp3. bird lures has now become common practice at all bird ringing stations in the U.K. and this has certainly aided the capture of a wide variety of species such as Meadow Pipit, Tree Sparrow and Redwing to name just three. Indeed our overall total for Redwing (615) during 2024 has completely smashed the previous year’s record total of 419.

  The Ringing and Migration Week as normal was our busiest week of the year and it was also our chance to engage with the public and explain in more detail the work that we carry out on the study of bird migration. Our teams working at RSPB Bempton, South Landing, Thornwick, Flamborough Village and Ocean View managed to ring 706 new birds, a great improvement on 2023. The highlight of this week was the catching of Red-flanked Bluetail at Bempton, and it is always nice to show visitors such species as Yellow-browed Warbler, Grey Wagtail and Brambling.

  Bempton Cliffs RSPB

  Ringing activities at Bempton Cliffs focused on a nest box Nest Record Scheme project, a MOTUS tracking project on Blackcap, as well as standard mist netting during the months of August through to November. During that period a total of 876 birds were processed, of which 813 were new.

  

  Early autumn saw good numbers of common migrants passing through the reserve and as such annual catch totals were exceeded for Redstart (4), Pied Flycatcher (5) and Garden Warbler (5). 76 Meadow Pipit was also a site record, following a concerted effort to target that species in September. A Barred Warbler on 3 October was the 4th for the site and later, a Red-flanked Bluetail on 17 October was the first to be ringed here.

  

  Other notable totals include 8 Yellow-browed Warbler, 89 Redwing (81 of which were caught on 15 October), 24 Blackcap and a Netherlands control Willow Warbler.

  

  Of the 24 Blackcap, 4 were fitted with MOTUS nano-tags, bringing the total number of Blackcap tagged at Bempton to 13 (9 were also deployed during the autumn of 2023). The results from these nano-tags contribute to a collaborative project on this species within the MOTUS network, looking at fine-scale temporal movement and behavioural ecology.

  A Blackcap that we tagged on 5th October 2024 was detected 13 days later by a receiver in Southern Norway, on 18th October.

  

  This marks our third tagged Blackcap recovery from Bempton, following a bird that was tracked to Germany via the Netherlands in October/November 2023, and another earlier that same autumn which moved south and was detected in Dunwich on the Suffolk coast.

  The Tree Sparrow nesting season produced just 168 successfully fledged chicks (165 ringed) from 39 active nestboxes, compared with 407 fledged (395 ringed) from 59 active nest boxes in 2023. The poor breeding season was mostly attributed to a prolonged wet and cold spring, coupled with higher than usual Weasel nest predation. In contrast, Swallow productivity fared much better with a total of 21 chicks fledged/ringed from 5 nests monitored.

  Flamborough Headland Ringing Totals

  Species	2024 Total
  Sparrowhawk	7
  Kestrel	8
  Kittiwake	12
  Stock Dove	2
  Woodpigeon	3
  Barn Owl	10
  Kingfisher	1
  Great Spotted Woodpecker	2
  Swallow	34
  Tree Pipit	1
  Meadow Pipit	89
  Rock Pipit	7
  Grey Wagtail	2
  Pied Wagtail	3
  Wren	165
  Dunnock	179
  Robin	127
  Red-flanked Bluetail	1
  Redstart	4
  Stonechat	2
  Blackbird	313
  Fieldfare	2
  Song Thrush	68
  Redwing	615
  Cetti’s Warbler	1
  Grasshopper Warbler	1
  Sedge Warbler	2
  Reed Warbler	12
  Barred Warbler	2
  Lesser Whitethroat	33
  Whitethroat	59
  Garden Warbler	12
  Blackcap	137
  Yellow-browed Warbler	25
  Radde’s Warbler	1
  Chiffchaff	140
  Willow Warbler	82
  Goldcrest	148
  Spotted Flycatcher	3
  Pied Flycatcher	5
  Long-tailed Tit	67
  Coal Tit	28
  Blue Tit	122
  Great Tit	116
  Treecreeper	5
  Great Grey Shrike	1
  Magpie	4
  Starling	545
  House Sparrow	56
  Tree Sparrow	401
  Chaffinch	102
  Brambling	12
  Greenfinch	106
  Goldfinch	204
  Siskin	23
  Linnet	52
  Lesser Redpoll	6
  Bullfinch	36
  Yellowhammer	31
  Reed Bunting	14
  Grand Total	4252
  Species Total	60

  Recoveries

  There were fewer than normal recoveries/controls of birds encountered away from the headland in 2024, in fact one of our more disappointing years. During 2024 for all movements in excess of 5km, there were 14 reports of Flamborough and Bempton ringed birds moving to other localities together with only 7 findings of birds which had been ringed previously elsewhere. The only international exchanges were a Goldcrest to Germany and a Willow Warbler from the Netherlands, although the Redwing to the Channel Islands also could be considered a highlight.

  Selected 2023 ringing recoveries

  Blackbird

  LR44768	3M	22/10/2022	Flamborough Head
  	Xf	25/02/2024	Worthen, Shropshire253 km SW 491 days

  Redwing

  RY27990	4	19/10/2023	Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve
  	R	02/11/2024	Mannez Quarry, Alderney, Channel Islands 511 km SSW 380 days.

  Willow Warbler

  15272A	4	16/09/2024	Onderdendam, Bedum, Groningen, The Netherlands 53°19’N 6°34’E
  	R	19/09/2024	Bempton Cliffs RSPB 54°08’N 00°10’E 452 km WNW 3 days

  Blackcap

  AZZ9431	3F	14/09/2023	Hayling Golf Course, Hayling Island, Hampshire
  	R	31/07/2024	Flamborough Head 372 km N 321 days

  Goldcrest

  NVH010	6F	27/03/2022	Flamborough Head
  	R	28/03/2024	Greifswalder Oie, Mecklenburg- Vorpommern, Germany 54°15’N 13°55’E 913 km E 732 days

  Starling

  LN16059	3J	15/06/2021	Flamborough Head
  	R	31/01/2024	Kilnsea, Spurn Bird Observatory 58 km SSE 960 days

  LJ94031	3J	18/06/2024	Kilnsea, Spurn Bird Observatory
  	R	09/07/2024	Bempton Village 61km NNW 21 days

  LR92720	3J	01/06/2024	Bempton Village
  	R	20/07/2024	Kilnsea, Spurn Bird Observatory 61km SSE 49 days.

  LR92089	3J	01/06/2024	Flamborough Head
  	R	11/06/2024	Kilnsea, Spurn Bird Observatory 58 km SSE 10 days

  LR92106	3J	04/06/2024	Flamborough Head
  	R	16/06/2024	Kilnsea, Spurn Bird Observatory 58 km SSE 12 days

  LR92180	3J	16/06/2024	Flamborough Head
  	R	04/08/2024	Kilnsea, Spurn Bird Observatory 58 km SSE 49 days

  LR92726	3J	01/06/2024	Bempton Village
  	R	04/08/2024	Kilnsea, Spurn Bird Observatory 61 km SSE 64 days

  LJ94441	3J	31/07/2024	Kilnsea, Spurn Bird Observatory
  	R	22/11/2024	Flamborough Head 58 km NNW 114 days

  LJ94369	3J	21/07/2024	Kilnsea, Spurn Bird Observatory
  	R	26/11/2024	Flamborough Bird Observatory 58 km NNW 128 days

  9 recoveries/controls noted for this species, all of which flew between the two observatories of Flamborough and Spurn.

  Tree Sparrow

  PT47830	1	24/05/2024	Bempton Cliffs RSPB
  	R	13/10/2024	Kew Cottage, Kilnsea , Spurn Bird Observatory 62km SSE 142 days

  AVR6878	4	12/02/2023	Flamborough Head
  	Xf	30/10/2024	Crayke, North Yorkshire 68 km W 626 days

  AVR7951	3J	22/07/2024	Flamborough Head
  	R	29/10/2024	ilnsea Clays, Spurn Bird Observatory 59 km SSE 99 days

  Chaffinch

  D803663	3M	10/10/2016	Flamborough Head
  	R	07/01/2024	Flamborough Head

  This male bird still going strong at South Landing into its 9th year, but only its second recapture in all of that time!

  Goldfinch

  BKC5835	5F	25/01/2024	Kenwick, Lincolnshire.
  	R	30/03/2024	Flamborough Head 88 km N 65 days

  Greenfinch

  TW54298	3M	05/10/2020	Filey Brigg Country Park
  	R	16/03/2024	Flamborough Head 16 km SE 885 days

  Mealy Redpoll

  AVR7664	3M	26/10/2023	Flamborough Head
  	R	29/03/2024	Telford and Wrekin 224 km SW 155 days

  Key to symbols and terms used:

  Age/Sex:		Manner of recovery:
  1	nestling	R	caught and released by a ringer
  2	fully grown, year of hatching quite unknown	X	found freshly dead or dying
  3	definitely hatched during current calendar year
  3J	still in partial juvenile plumage
  M	male
  F	female

  Flamborough Bird Observatory would like to thank the landowners on whose property the ringers set their nets; The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Flamborough Head Golf Club and The East Riding of Yorkshire Council and the RSPB Bempton Cliffs. We would also like to thank individuals who gave donations during the ringing and migration week, with which we were able to buy some new equipment.

  All ringing efforts of the Flamborough Bird Observatory group, East of the Dykes and at Bempton were supported by David Aitken, James Butcher, Jenny Butterworth, Paul Butterworth, Richard Cope, Ana Cowie, Nathaniel Dargue, Rebecca Durrant, Harriet Day, Andy Hood, Jo Hood, Tony Hood, Andy Jayes, Amy King, Jim Morgan, Elliot Morley, Poppy Rummery, Saskia Wischnewski, Lisa Scott, Graham Scott, Will Scott and additional sessions by visiting ringers.

  We are not a fully manned Observatory ringing station, but where possible, visiting licensed ringers can be hosted at one of our headland ringing sites. If you would like to experience ringing on the headland then, in the first instance, contact the ringer-in-charge: ringing@flamboroughbirdobs.org.uk

• November 2024

  A much steadier month for the ringing team with 23 sessions run with all but one being garden sites.

  A total of 351 birds of 19 species were caught, with 313 of these being newly ringed and 38 being re-traps.

  Winter Thrushes continued to dominate with 134 Redwing, 82 Blackbirds and a lone Fieldfare being ringed.

  

• October 2024

  An exceptional month for the ringing team with 49 sessions held across the headland.

  At Flamborough 1,151 birds were caught across the month, 996 newly ringed and 155 re-traps, while at RSPB Bempton 267 birds were caught with 239 of these being new and 28 re-traps.

  Our October numbers are always boosted by our annual ringing and migration event, Migweek, which sees our ringers holding daily demonstrations to showcase the science behind ringing and explain the migration of birds (see previous blog for details of Migweek).

  An excellent selection of scarcer migrants were ringed, at South landing ringers were rewarded with a Radde’s Warbler, Yellow-browed Warblers and a stunning Great Grey Shrike whilst a Barred Warbler and Cetti’s Warbler were caught at Thornwick. RSPB Bempton did well too with Red-flanked Bluetail, Barred Warbler and 7 Yellow-Browed Warblers.

  The month saw 410 Redwing ringed, hopefully some of these birds will be caught elsewhere on their migration providing us and the BTO with valuable information about the route they take, where they winter and also survival rates.

  At Flamborough birds ringed over the month also included 114 Tree Sparrow, 97 Goldcrest, 52 Blackbird and 38 Song thrush.

  

• Migweek 2024

  A return of FBO’s popular 9 day event celebrating all things migration. The ringing team aim to run public demonstrations on all 9 days at our South landing site, with additional demonstrations being held at RSPB Bempton. If we have enough ringers we also run sessions at other sites across the headland to try and maximise our numbers of migrants caught. We are of course beholden by the weather, hopeful of easterlies to bring us migrating birds.

  This year the weather wasn’t really our friend, with the final 2 days being cancelled due to rain and wind.

  A total of 706 new birds were ringed and 108 re-traps caught.

  As always a huge thank you to all the ringers for their time and effort over the 9 days and to all the lovely visitors who keep us going with their enthusiasm and kind words.

  Saturday 12/10/24

  The demonstration at South landing was cancelled due the weather however the forecasted rain didn’t really materialise with just a few showers first thing, so our team decided to give it a go and see if we could catch any migrants, its was very quiet with only 18 birds caught (9 of which were re-traps) including 2 Goldcrest and a Song Thrush.

  The team at RSPB Bempton ran their public demonstration and showed the eager public a lovely selection of migrants including 5 redwings, 1 Brambling, 1 Blackcap and 2 Goldcrest.

  Sunday 13/10/24

  The South landing team fared better today catching 50 new birds and 11 re-traps, made up a mix of resident birds and migrants. Visitors enjoyed our resident Tree Sparrows, given some people live in counties where this delightful bird is now extinct. Also caught were 4 Yellowhammer and a Reed Bunting, these declining species are being helped at Flamborough with feeding stations and our lighthouse grasslands bird crop.

  Our Thornwick site caught 17 new birds and 7 re-traps with the star bird being a Cetti’s Warbler, this wetland specialist does not yet breed at Flamborough but is becoming more frequent.

  Garden sites at Flamborough and Bempton caught 39 new birds and 3 re-traps including 3 Redwing, 3 Blackbird and 10 Starling.

  Monday 14/10/24

  The ringing demonstration at South landing yielded 45 new birds and 12 re-traps including 13 Yellowhammers, 6 Goldcrest, 3 Redwing, 1 Grey Wagtail and surprisingly a Magpie, we don’t often catch Magpies as they are usually able to wriggle out of our nets.

  Thornwick was exceptionally quiet with the ringers only catching 2 new birds and 7 re-traps.

  On South landing beach our ringers caught 6 new rock pipit and re-trapped a Robin.

  At RSPB Bempton the team caught 15 new birds and re-trapped 2.

  Tuesday 15/10/24

  A very quiet morning at South landing was rewarded on the very last round with a stunning first year Great Grey Shrike, an increasingly rare bird at Flamborough this was a wonderful treat for our ringers and visitors alike. The last time a Great Grey Shrike was caught and ringed at Flamborough was 2002. Earlier birds of interest included 2 beautiful Brambling and 13 Redwing.

  The team at Thornwick had a fantastic session with a big increase in Redwing numbers,

  of the 99 new birds caught and ringed, 80 were Redwing alongside 2 more Brambling and a Siskin.

  A garden site in the village also caught 43 new Redwing and another 2 Brambling in their catch of 52 new and 3 re-traps.

  On South landing beach 2 Rock Pipit were caught, 1 being a re-trapped bird that was ringed during migweek 2023!

  The team at RSPB Bempton also had a fabulous morning with a big increase in their number too, catching 104 new birds and 5 re-traps. 3 yellow-browed Warblers were the first of migweek alongside 81 Redwing.

  Wednesday 16/10/24

  A slightly poor forecast didn’t materialise but the slightly breezy conditions brought us a small flurry of winter Thrushes

  At South landing 42 new birds were ringed and 10 re-traps caught, with the visitors enjoying seeing 12 Redwing, 9 Song Thrush and 6 Blackbird.

  Again Thornwick triumphed with another 56 birds being ringed alongside 2 re-traps. This included 46 Redwing and 8 Song thrush,

  Flamborough garden sites added 33 new birds and 1 re-trap to the weeks totals so far, including another 17 Redwing and a delightful 10 Long-tailed Tits

  Thursday 17/10/24

  A much quieter day at Flamborough with 37 new birds ringed at the demonstration and 6 re-traps caught.

  At Thornwick another 21 new birds ringed and 1 re-trap, of which 9 were Redwing and 4 Song Thrush.

  Star bird today most definitely went to the team at RSPB Bempton who delighted the crowds at their public demonstration with a Red-flanked Bluetail ( which stayed around the car park scrub and dell until the 29th October). They also caught another Yellow-browed Warbler and 2 more Brambling.

  Friday 18/10/24

  What was to be our last public demonstration of the week at South landing saw 21 new birds ringed and 11 re-traps.

  A nice mixture of species were enjoyed by our assembled visitors including 2 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Chiffchaff and a Blackcap.

  Sadly our weekend demonstrations at Flamborough and RSPB Bempton had to be cancelled due to bad weather.

  

• August 2024

  August saw us run 19 sessions over 6 sites including our 2 final sessions at our CES (Constant Effort Site), an end of season update on our CES will be coming later in the year.

  We caught a total of 389 birds of which 355 were new and 34 were re-traps.

  The 2 CES sessions added another 53 new birds and 12 re-traps.

  Notable catches were 48 new Willow warblers, 98 Starling, 29 Blackbirds and 2 Sparrowhawks.

  Some of our ringers joined the ringing group team at RSPB Bempton cliffs for their two day ‘Bempton goes wild’ event, a celebration of nature with lots of family events such as ringing demonstrations, guided walks, moth trapping and stands from local wildlife organisations.

  Over the two days a total of 144 birds of 19 species were caught including 11 Swallows, 32 Tree Sparrows, 12 Whitethroats and a sparrowhawk. The event was a great success with lots of visitors enjoying seeing birds in the hand, learning about the reasons for ringing birds and finding out all about bird migration.

  

• September 2024

  A month of quality over quantity with only 5 sessions being run over 2 sites.

  A total of 114 birds were caught with 99 of these being new and 15 re-traps.

  Work parties were held to prepare our sites ready for the autumn migration, including cutting some new rides and tidying existing ones.

  A good spell of easterly winds saw an arrival of migrants arriving on the headland, with our ringers amazingly catching 11 Yellow-browed Warblers through the month with the first one being on the 19th, we usually see these delightful birds from the end of September in to October.

  Yellow-browed Warblers breed in Siberian taiga forests and pass through the UK when migrating south west for winter.

  Another lovely surprise for our ringing team was a single Tree Pipit caught at south landing, whilst Tree pipits are seen regularly on migration over the headland we very rarely catch them, the last one being in 2020.

  Tree Pipits are a summer visitor to the Uk, breeding in forest edges and clearings. The UK population fell sharply at the end of the 20th century and they are now a red-listed bird. Tree Pipits winter in the humid zone of West Africa, data is showing that migrant birds who winter here are suffering the largest population declines.

  The typical lifespan over a Tree Pipit is 2 years although the maximum age shown from recapture of a ringed bird is 6 years and 7 months, (however this was in 1938 when perhaps there were less pressures on our birds).

  

• July 2024

  A much more settled period of weather facilitated 24 ringing sessions over 6 sites, including another 3 CES sessions at Thornwick.

  A total of 444 birds were caught with 373 of these being new and 71 re-traps.

  The CES sessions were quieter this month with a total of 48 new birds and 17 re-traps.

  An increase in warblers was evident with juveniles on the move, with the following ringed:

  36 Chiffchaff

  29 Blackcap

  25 Whitethroat

  9  Lesser Whitethroat

  8  Willow Warbler

  1  Reed Warbler

  An unusual catch of 3 Pied Wagtail in a headland garden.

  The surprise of the month was a stunning juvenile Kingfisher caught at South Landing, only the second one to be ringed at Flamborough.

  Kingfishers are a scare bird due to Flamborough lack of freshwater, with most birds seen being juveniles moving late summer/early autumn.

  

  A female Blackcap caught at south landing on the 31st, already bearing a ring proved interesting, she was ringed at Hayling Island, Hampshire on the 14th September 2023 as juvenile bird.

  The likelihood being this bird was born at Flamborough and caught migrating to North Africa for winter (although some are now overwintering in the UK) and has now returned here to breed.

  Ringing has shown Blackcaps have a typical lifespan of 2 years although the maximum age, again shown by ringing data is 10 years and 8 months old.

  

• June 2024

  June saw our ringing team hold 22 sessions at 5 sites, including our CES at Thornwick, Bempton village and south landing.

  A total of 414 birds were caught with 322 of these being new and 92 re-traps.

  The Constant Effort Site at Thornwick was run 3 times catching a total of 74 new birds and 34 more re-traps – these re-traps are fantastic for data, showing us how old birds are, how many times we’ve caught them and when they are breeding. We are seeing great site fidelity from our returning warblers, often they are caught in the same net year on year.

  The star bird of the CES so far was an adult Grasshopper warbler caught in our 6th session, Grasshopper warblers are rarely caught at Flamborough, a few pairs do usually breed on the headland, the last one ringed was at South Landing in September 2020.

  A Broad-bodied Chaser dragonfly also made its way in to a net at our CES site, some delicate work extracting it and it was soon flying off happily but not before we managed a quick photo!

  Other highlights in the month included another Spotted Flycatcher this time at South Landing, 12 Chiffchaff, 11 Lesser Whitethroat, 9 Whitethroat, 3 Blackcap and 155 Starling.

  

• May 2024

  May saw our ringing team complete 12 sessions (including Bempton village), of which 3 were at our Constant Effort Site at Thornwick.

  198 birds were caught of 21 species, with 106 of these being new and 92 retraps.

  CES no 1

  A perfect weather day, virtually no wind and some lovely spring sunshine with birds singing all around us.

  We caught 43 birds of 15 different species, of these 27 were new and 16 retraps.

  Birds caught included Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, Blackcap and Chiffchaff, also Song Thrush, Reed Bunting, Greenfinch and Bullfinch.

  CES no 2

  Again another ideal weather day, although a little bit too sunny!

  A quieter session with 37 birds of 9 species caught, of which 11 were new and 26 retraps.

  On checking data it was heartening to have re caught a male Whitethroat which we originally ringed in 2021 as an age code 4 (hatched before the current calendar year) making him at least 4 years old, and he was caught in exactly the same net lane as the first time. Incredible to think this small warbler has already made 4 round trips to Africa and back!

  

  Our last net round of the day as we were packing up proved to be the winner with a beautiful Spotted Flycatcher turning up in the net – the first one to be ringed at Flamborough in spring for many years.

  Another summer visitor they pass through Flamborough on migration in spring and Autumn, wintering again in Africa sometimes as far south as Namibia, around 7000km from their breeding grounds.

  They are declining as a breeding species and have been on the UK red list since 1996.

  Spotted Flycatcher are unusual in that they moult in a reversed order to all other European passerines, moulting their primaries and tail feathers ascendantly and the secondaries descendently. We could not age our bird as Spotted Flycatchers complete a full moult of their feathers in their wintering grounds, and as male and females have the same plumage and size we could not sex it either as there was no brood patch/cloacal protuberance.

  

  CES no 3

  Not so ideal weather wise as there was a moderate breeze, however we still managed 21 birds of 11 species. 11 of these were newly ringed alongside 10 retraps.

  Birds of note included 3 newly fledged Song Thrush, 1 Whitethroat, 1 Lesser Whitethroat and 2 Greenfinch.

• April 2024

  April still saw us held back by plenty of wind and showers, however the ringing team still managed to complete 11 sessions at 3 different sites.

  We held our session to prepare our Constant effort Site (CES), which entailed checking all our rides and path and ensuring our equipment was all present and in good order. We had a brief ringing session at the same time so we could check our nets were ok for the season. We caught a few returning warblers – 5 Chiffchaff, 3 Blackcap and 1 Willow Warbler.

  Over the month we caught 116 birds of which 89 were new and 27 retraps.

  There was definitely a finch theme with the following being ringed:

  20 Goldfinch

  16 Siskin

  16 Greenfinch

  5 Chaffinch

  1 Brambling

  April also saw the start of our warblers arriving with 11 Blackcap, 7 Chiffchaff and 2 Willow Warblers being ringed.

  

• January – March 2024

  A very quiet period, mostly due to the weather as our ringers are constrained by the strength of the wind and frequent rain, with there being very few days suitable for ringing activities.

  A total of 12 sessions were held over 3 sites, our main site at South landing and 2 local gardens.

  A total of 173 birds were caught, of these 107 were newly ringed with 66 retraps.

  The most numerous birds being Blackbirds and Starlings, a single Treecreeper was caught also.

  In March 3 Chiffchaff were caught alongside 2 Reed Bunting.

  In 2023 only a single Reed Bunting was caught at Flamborough so the 4 caught so far this year is an improvement and shows the benefit our feeding station is having for local farmland birds such as Reed Bunting and Yellowhammer.

  

• November 2023

  A quieter month for ringing activities following on from the busy month of October and Migweek.

  The team ran 12 sessions, mostly garden sites and South Landing.

  A total of 117 birds were caught of 20 species, with 102 of these newly ringed and 15 retraps.

  The stand out highlight of the month being a surprise Red-flanked Bluetail which turned up in a woodland net on the 7th, a lovely surprise on the first net round.

  This represented Flamborough’s only record in 2023 of this long distance migrant.

  Red-flanked Bluetail breed in taiga, usually in upland terrain in undisturbed spruce and birch forests, there has been some westward expansion of their breeding range with some now breeding in north and east Finland. They winter in SE Asia.h November

  The bird was aged as a juvenile (born this year) and most likely a female given the dull plumage and limited amount of blue in its plumage.

  

  An eastern-type Lesser Whitethroat was caught in a village garden.

  A few late Blackcaps remained with 11 being caught through the month.

  A single Grey Wagtail was another garden highlight.

  

• Ringing Report 2023

  The Flamborough Bird Observatory (FBO) ringing group comprises the historical recording area east of the Dykes on Flamborough Headland together with operations at Bempton, mainly at Bempton Cliffs RSPB Reserve.

  The purpose of the ringing group will be to gather data on wild birds, especially migrants, which are found in the FBO area. The secondary purpose will be to assist in the training of people in the techniques of trapping, handling and ringing wild birds. In 2023 we completed the third consecutive year for our constant effort site (CES) in the scrub at the Thornwick Bay Holiday Camp. The CES scheme is a national standardised ringing programme started in 1983 and now including c.150 different locations throughout Britain and Ireland. The scheme provides valuable trend information on abundance of adults and juveniles, productivity and also adult survival rates for 24 species of common songbird.

  Totals of new birds caught and ringed on the outer head were 3593 individuals of 56 species which is the third highest ever for the bird observatory, and was achieved despite a paucity of ringers at certain periods of time.

  A breakdown of birds ringed by month is given in the table below:

  Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
  103	25	65	199	321	338	335	498	275	1266	161	0

  October is by far our busiest month, not least because of the Ringing and Migration Week, when we are active every day with an enhanced team of ringers.

  Ringing at Bempton Cliffs RSPB is also carried out on behalf of the Flamborough Bird Observatory, and saw 969 birds of 30 species, augmenting the totals on the outer head.

  As usual it was a year of mixed fortunes, the number of acrocephalus warblers was down, mainly a result of the ‘Roost’ not being worked during the year. Blackcap and Chiffchaff numbers were well up on the previous two years, whilst Willow warbler was the second best total this century. The main highlight, however was the highest ever observatory total for Whitethroat and also the continued rise in of the number of Redwing caught and ringed. For the third year in succession we have ringed more Redwing than Blackbird. Redwing also achieved the most spectacular of the ringing recoveries (see below).

  For the Constant Effort Site (CES) we completed 9 out of the 12 sessions, and a total of 264 birds were caught with 172 of these newly ringed and 92 re-traps (which provide valuable information on the longevity and site fidelity of adult birds). The percentage of re-traps was significantly down on the previous two years.
  For comparison in 2021/2022 we completed 9/10 sessions and caught 352/408 birds of which 169/221 were new and 183/187 re-traps.

  Flamborough Bird Observatory would like to thank the landowners on whose property the ringers set their nets; The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Flamborough Head Golf Club and The East Riding of Yorkshire Council and the RSPB Bempton Cliffs. We would also like to thank individuals who gave donations during the ringing and migration week, with which we were able to buy some new equipment.

  We are not a fully manned Observatory ringing station, but where possible, visiting licensed ringers can be hosted at one of our headland ringing sites. If you would like to experience ringing on the headland then, in the first instance, contact the ringer-in-charge: ringing@flamboroughbirdobs.org.uk

  Flamborough Headland Ringing Totals

  Species	Flamborough	Bempton	Grand Total
  Sparrowhawk	6	2	8
  Kestrel	14		14
  Woodcock	1		1
  Kittiwake	19		19
  Black-headed Gull	1		1
  Stock Dove	3		3
  Woodpigeon	3	1	4
  Collared Dove		1	1
  Barn Owl	6	4	10
  Great Spotted Woodpecker	2		2
  Swallow	2	14	16
  Meadow Pipit	32		32
  Grey Wagtail	4		4
  Pied Wagtail	6		6
  Wren	89	38	127
  Dunnock	118	20	138
  Robin	153	29	182
  Red-flanked Bluetail	1		1
  Redstart	2	1	3
  Blackbird	278	105	383
  Fieldfare	12	2	14
  Song Thrush	57	29	86
  Redwing	372	47	419
  Cetti’s Warbler	1		1
  Sedge Warbler	4		4
  Reed Warbler	8		8
  Lesser Whitethroat	31	2	33
  Whitethroat	69	2	71
  Garden Warbler	2		2
  Blackcap	129	17	146
  Yellow-browed Warbler	2		2
  Chiffchaff	124	9	133
  Willow Warbler	109	11	120
  Goldcrest	276	52	328
  Pied Flycatcher	1		1
  Long-tailed Tit	38	4	42
  Coal Tit	14		14
  Blue Tit	262	13	275
  Great Tit	83	18	101
  Treecreeper	12		12
  Magpie	3		3
  Jackdaw	1		1
  Carrion Crow	2		2
  Starling	494	65	559
  House Sparrow	51		51
  Tree Sparrow	158	425	583
  Chaffinch	64	5	69
  Brambling	12	2	14
  Greenfinch	125		125
  Goldfinch	193	37	230
  Siskin	1		1
  Linnet	8	8	16
  Common Redpoll	1		1
  Lesser Redpoll	50		50
  Bullfinch	49	1	50
  Yellowhammer	34		34
  Reed Bunting	1	5	6
  Total	3593	969	4562
  Species total	56	30	57

  Selected 2023 ringing recoveries

  During 2023 for all movements in excess of 5km, there were 14 reports of Flamborough and Bempton ringed birds moving to other localities together with 12 findings of birds which had been ringed previously elsewhere. An excellent year involving eight international exchanges from six countries; Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France and Spain.

  Barn Owl

  GY25235	1	13/07/2023	Bempton Cliffs RSPB
  	Xf	21/08/2023	Kirkburn, Driffield, 28 km WSW, 39 days

  Barn Owl are an often reported bird when ringed, however movements reflect their sedentary nature. The previous longest distance for a Flamborough ringed bird to figure in these reports is 25km.

  Sparrowhawk

  DA42161	3M	23/10/2022	Bempton Cliffs RSPB
  	Xf	23/02/2023	Hedon, Hull 44km SSW, 123 days

  Blackbird

  LH06336	4M	18/10/2017	Flamborough Head
  	VV	05/01/2023	Strensall, York, North Yorks 62km W, 1905days

  LL44392	5F	11/02/2019	Holland, North Ronaldsay, Orkney
  	R	01/06/2022	Flamborough Head 600 km SSE 1206 days

  Redwing

  AL03427	4	10/10/2022	Flamborough Head 54° 7’N, 0° 6’W
  	Xf	15/01/2023	Bullas, Murcia, Spain 38°01’N 1°40’W 1791km S 97 days

  By far our best recovery of the year. There have only been a handful of Redwing recovered this far south in Spain, and indeed the BTO ringing scheme has yet to record a movement of Redwing to North Africa.

  Lesser Whitethroat

  Z795880	4	06/05/2019	Buckton, East Riding of Yorks
  	R	06/05/2023	Flamborough Head 7 km SE, 1461 days

  Ringed as an adult, this bird is presumably a local breeder, returning from Africa for its 5th season.

  Whitethroat

  AVR7341	3J	01/08/2023	Flamborough Head
  	Xf	03/09/2023	Peacehaven, East Sussex 369 km S, 33 days

  Migrating south for the winter, on the south coast of the UK by the first week in September.

  Blackcap

  ET56184	3M	13/10/2023	Sore Merkeskog, Utsira, Rogaland, Norway 59°17’N 4°52’E
  	R	27/10/2023	Flamborough Head 54°7’N, 0°6’W 651 km SSW, 14 days

  Goldcrest

  U26138	3F	23/09/2023	Kabeltromlekrattet, Skagen, Nordjyllands Amt, Denmark 57°43’N 10°37’E
  	R	19/10/2023	Bempton Cliffs RSPB 781 km WSW, 26 days

  Long-tailed Tit

  LAB168	2	09/10/2023	Filey Brigg Country Park
  	R	14/10/2023	Flamborough Head, 16 km SE, 5 days

  Blue Tit

  Z794925	3	05/12/2017	Bempton Cliffs RSPB
  	Xf	14/12/2023	Bempton Cliffs RSPB 2200 days

  Local recoveries of two individuals both living into their sixth year.

  Starling

  LL88940	3J	19/06/2023	Flamborough Head
  	Xf	31/08/2023	Werrington, Peterborough 167 km S, 73 days

  The German bird was ringed as a nestling. Its very possible that it spent its first winter in the UK.

  Chaffinch

  D803663	3M	10/10/2016	Flamborough Head
  	R	02/04/2023	Flamborough Head 2365 days

  This individual is still going strong into its seventh year.

  Greenfinch

  VZ65466	3M	30/11/2022	Spurn Bird Observatory, Kilnsea
  	R	05/05/2023	Flamborough Head 58 km NNW, 156 days

  Goldfinch

  AVR6936	3J	27/08/2023	Flamborough Head
  	R	12/10/2023	Kilnsea Clays, Spurn Bird Observatory 60 km SSE, 46 days

  Two individuals ringed in exactly the same location in northern France.

  Siskin

  AVR6015	5M	21/03/2022	Flamborough Head
  	R	02/03/2023	Llanfyllin, Powys 257 km SW, 346 days

  We have caught very few Siskin over the years, it was exciting to get a distance recovery.

  Lesser Redpoll

  BLC0140	3	09/10/2023	Loch of Leys, near Banchory, Aberdeenshire
  	R	11/11/2023	Flamborough Head 361 km SSE, 33 days

  Key to symbols and terms used:

  Age/Sex:		Manner of recovery:
  1	nestling	R	caught and released by a ringer
  2	fully grown, year of hatching quite unknown	Xf	found freshly dead or dying
  3	definitely hatched during current calendar year
  3J	still in partial juvenile plumage
  M	male
  F	female

• October 2023

  A busy month for the headland ringers that included our Migweek event – see previous blog post.

  37 sessions were held at 4 sites (plus additional sessions and demos at RSPB Bempton), a total of 1205 new birds were ringed with 108 re-traps processed.

  Favourable easterly winds brought us Scandinavian migrants en masse with 313 Redwing being ringed alongside 255 Goldcrest, 117 Blackbird, 38 Lesser Redpoll & 1 Mealy Redpoll, 43 Song Thrush and 60 Robins. 12 Fieldfare were notable as these large thrushes are notoriously difficult to catch at Flamborough.

  Only 2 Yellow-browed Warblers were ringed this year.

  A nice surprise in the nets at South Landing on the 8th October was a Cetti’s Warbler, this reedbed and water side scrub specialist is rapidly spreading northwards in the Uk and is becoming a more regularly recorded visitor at Flamborough.

  A Norwegian ringed Blackcap was caught in a village garden on the 27th October.

  

  

  

• Migweek 2023

  October sees a return of FBO’s Ringing & Migration week celebrating autumn migration along the east coast. Our ringing team aim to a public demonstration every day throughout the 9 day event at our South Landing site. Where we have enough ringers we also try and run session at other sites across the headland, we hope for favourable winds to bring us a fall of thrushes and maybe something rarer from further east.

  The run up to migweek sees us all watching the weather forecasts avidly for a hint of good winds from the east. This years forecasted easterlies looked less than ideal for ringing given the 50 miles an hour combined with rain! Remarkably our teams triumphed operating demos on 8 of the 9 days.

  A total of 936 new birds of 29 species were ringed with 123 retraps across the headland (including RSPB Bempton).

  A massive thank you to the entire team, the visiting ringers, everyone who made us tea, cakes and  generally kept us going and of course to all the lovely visitors who attended the demos throughout the event.

  Saturday 14th Oct

  Our first demo at South Landing saw a steady start with few migrants but plenty of interested members of the public.

  A flock of 11 Long-tailed tits caught and released together delighted the crowd, as did 13 Tree Sparrows given some of our visitors had travelled from counties now bereft of this wonderful farmland bird. We are lucky to have a healthy population across the headland which is supported by various conservation and monitoring projects.

  Sunday 15th Oct

  Sunday saw an increase in Goldcrest with 11 caught, always a special bird to show at demonstrations given they amazing migration over 350 miles of North sea.

  2 Treecreepers delighted the crowd with their cryptic plumage. A single Redwing was also caught.

  Mon 16th Oct

  An increase in migrants provided some interesting birds for the demonstration with 11 Lesser Redpoll, 4 Blackbird, 3 Redwing and 2 Song Thrush.

  Tues 17th Oct

  Tuesdays demo was extra special as we hosted Paul Murphy from BBC’s Look North, he came to film us and talk to FBO volunteers about Migweek and the wonder of bird migration along the east coast of Yorkshire.

  Alongside this Tony Hood, FBO’s secretary was running a special ‘migration class’ for the YWT’s home education programme which saw the assembled children learning about bird migration, attempting to ‘catch’ toy birds in a 10ft mist net and attending our demonstration to see migrating birds up close.

  Goldcrest, Redwing and Tree Sparrow provided interest to the crowds but the star of the show was a delightful and somewhat unexpected Yellow-browed Warbler, which was enjoyed by over 60 assembled spectators.

  Our Thornwick site ran for the first time in migweek with 67 birds caught.

  Wed 18th Oct

  Higher winds reduced our opportunities for ringing, but our sheltered nets still gave us the chance to run our demo and our Thornwick site. We saw an arrival of Brambling with one shown at South Landing and another 5 caught at Thornwick. We again had the chance to talk about Goldcrest and their amazing migration with 18 caught at our demo, the crowd were also amused by a feisty Great-spotted Woodpecker.

  The Thornwick team had a few more migrants with 5 Brambling, 7 Goldcrest, 3 Blackcap, 3 Song Thrush and a Chiffchaff.

  Thurs 19th Oct

  A sky full of thrushes greeted us at dawn, at last an arrival of migrants! Our 5 hour ringing session at South Landing was all migrants bar a single Wren! With 21 Redwing, 12 Song Thrush and 11 Blackbird, our first Blackcaps of the week at the demo and 3 more beautiful Brambling there was plenty for us to show our visitors. The Thornwick team excelled with a brilliant 80 birds caught, but the stars of today were the team at RSPB Bempton with an epic 11 hour session yielding 198 birds including a Danish ringed Goldcrest and an amazing 66 Blackbirds! Hats off to them!!

  Fri 20th Oct

  The arrival of storm Babet saw all ringing and outdoor migweek events cancelled.

  Sat 21st Oct

  More thrushes appeared, perhaps new in or ones that had arrived on Thursday and sat out the storm.

  Our demonstration was shortened by persistent showers, however we still caught 57 new birds including 25 Blackbird, 12 Redwing, 2 Fieldfare and 7 Robins.

  Sun 22nd Oct

  Our last demo of Migweek saw a limited crowd – possibly connected to the arrival and identification of a juvenile Red-headed bunting on the headland, a species yet to be accepted in the UK but currently under BOURC assessment after acceptance of one record by the BBRC.

  Our demo was curtailed slightly early due to FBO volunteers being needed to direct people to the Bunting along with marshalling the twitch.

  We still had time to catch 42 new birds including 23 Lesser Redpoll, 10 Blackbirds and a stunning Woodcock. We are always feel privileged when we catch one of these beautiful and secretive birds.

  

• September 2023

  A very quiet month for birds and ringing on the headland with unfavourable south-westerly winds.

  At this time in the autumn we start hoping for easterly winds to bring us migrants from Scandinavia and further east, but this sadly did not materialise.

  We held 16 ringing sessions at 4 sites catching 280 birds of 27 species, of these 267 were newly ringed birds.

  The highlights included 32 Meadow Pipit, 11 lesser Redpoll, 2 Swallow and a lone Garden Warbler.

  

  

• Ringing Report 2022

  The Flamborough Bird Observatory (FBO) ringing group comprises the historical recording area east of the Dykes on Flamborough Headland together with operations at Bempton, mainly at Bempton Cliffs RSPB Reserve.   The purpose of the ringing group is to gather data on wild birds, especially migrants, which are found in the FBO area. The secondary purpose is to assist in the training of people in the techniques of trapping, handling and ringing wild birds. 

  FBO also run a Constant Effort Site (CES) at Thornwick Bay between the months of May and August.  The CES scheme, administered by the British Trust for Ornithology, uses catches from standardised mist-netting to monitor key aspects of the demography of 24 common breeding songbirds.  Using 12 standard visits at 10 day intervals throughout the breeding season, targeting the capture and re-capture of individual birds over successive breeding seasons. There are 100-150 such CES sites operative in the U.K., which essentially help to monitor bird populations through time, in order to aid effective conservation.

  
  We completed 10 out of the 12 sessions, and a total of 408 birds were caught with 221 of these newly ringed and 187 re-traps (which provide valuable information on the longevity and site fidelity of adult birds).
  267 adult birds were caught alongside 141 juveniles, comprising 22 species
  For comparison in 2021 we completed 9 sessions and caught 352 birds of 27 species of which 169 were new and 183 re-traps. (240 adults/112 juveniles)

  Additional bird ringing to the east of the dykes was carried out at South Landing, Thornwick Bay, Ocean View Farm and in two Flamborough village gardens.

  A more modest total of new birds ringed when compared to the last two years – 3084 birds of 58 species. No new additions to the species list were made in 2022.  Highlights were Cetti’s Warbler, caught in October at Thornwick Bay and South Landing, the third and fourth ringed for the observatory after a brace in 2019.  Also of note was a Pallas’s Warbler caught at South Landing (our first for 6 years) and 342 Redwing that easily surpassed our previous best total for this species and more surprisingly exceeded our Blackbird total for this year.

  A breakdown of birds ringed by month is given in the table below:

  Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
  44	0	125	169	207	313	190	256	250	907	436	187

  As can be seen from the above table, October was the dominant month accounting for 30% of all birds ringed, which is enhanced by the concentrated effort during Migration Week which sees intense activity with more ringers present on the headland.  Migweek – from the 8^th to the 16^th October was again a success, nets were successfully erected on all 9 days, garnering a total of 550 new birds ringed. It yet again proved to be a great interface with the public, particularly the youngsters, many of whom enjoyed such close experience with migrant species in the hand.

  Bird ringing to the west of the Dykes was carried out at Bempton and Buckton.

  Buckton 

  A total of 728 new birds were caught and ringed on 33 days between 18 April – 14th November. The majority of the ringing took place during good UK passage of juvenile birds in late August and on just a few days that were suitable for migrant arrivals in September and October. Totals included 94 Redwing, 92 Goldcrest, 54 Robin, 24 Sedge Warbler, 7 Garden Warbler, 4 Yellow-browed Warbler, 2 Grasshopper Warbler, and single Ring Ouzel, Icterine, Pallas’s and Radde’s Warblers. The Radde’s Warbler being found in a net with a Yellow-browed Warbler! 

  Pullus ringed included two brood of Kestrel and one brood of Barn Owls. 

  Ringing was undertaken by Mark Thomas, Ed Green and Ian Marshall. Thanks again to Buckton Hall Farm and Angus Wielkopolski for site access. 

  Flamborough Bird Observatory would like to thank the landowners on whose property the ringers set their nets;  The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Bourne Leisure at Thornwick Bay Camp, Flamborough Head Golf Club and The East Riding of Yorkshire Council and the RSPB Bempton Cliffs.  We would also like to thank individuals who gave donations during the ringing and migration week and at other times during the year. This is much appreciated and helps especially in replacing nets damaged by deer.  

  Flamborough Headland Ringing Totals for 2022

  Species	East of Dykes	Bempton	Buckton	Grand Total
  Storm Petrel	1			1
  Sparrowhawk	6			6
  Kestrel	7		6	13
  Turnstone	1			1
  Black-headed Gull	2			2
  Great Black-backed Gull	1			1
  Kittiwake
  Stock Dove	4			4
  Woodpigeon	5		1	6
  Collared Dove	3			3
  Barn Owl	12	3	1	16
  Great Spotted Woodpecker	1		1	2
  Swallow	1		23	24
  Meadow Pipit	108		6	114
  Rock Pipit	10			10
  Yellow Wagtail			1	1
  Grey Wagtail	4		1	5
  Pied Wagtail	1			1
  Wren	105	3	22	130
  Dunnock	131	2	19	152
  Robin	98	8	54	160
  Redstart			1	1
  Stonechat	1			1
  Ring Ouzel			1	1
  Blackbird	337	2	58	397
  Fieldfare	2		1	3
  Song Thrush	24		24	48
  Redwing	342		94	436
  Cetti’s Warbler	2			2
  Grasshopper Warbler			2	2
  Sedge Warbler	4		24	28
  Reed Warbler	15		7	22
  Icterine Warbler			1	1
  Lesser Whitethroat	19	1	7	27
  Whitethroat	27	5	55	87
  Garden Warbler			7	7
  Blackcap	85	1	11	97
  Pallas’s Warbler	1		1	2
  Yellow-browed Warbler	4		4	8
  Radde’s Warbler			1	1
  Chiffchaff	76	2	8	86
  Willow Warbler	52	2	29	83
  Goldcrest	217		92	307
  Firecrest	2			2
  Spotted Flycatcher			2	2
  Pied Flycatcher			5	5
  Long-tailed Tit	65			65
  Coal Tit	8			8
  Blue Tit	144		5	149
  Great Tit	64	9	3	76
  Treecreeper	12			12
  Magpie	3			3
  Jackdaw	3			3
  Rook	3			3
  Starling	511		4	515
  House Sparrow	109			109
  Tree Sparrow	150	223	71	444
  Chaffinch	37	1	6	44
  Brambling	2		7	9
  Greenfinch	27			27
  Goldfinch	137	2	10	149
  Siskin	12			12
  Linnet	9	2	2	13
  Common Redpoll			3	3
  Lesser Redpoll	8		4	12
  Bullfinch	40		2	42
  Yellowhammer	24	1	1	26
  Reed Bunting	5		40	45
  Total	3084	267	728	4079
  Species total	58	16	46	66

  Recoveries

  All movements in excess of 10km are shown below. In addition there were several local movements of birds between Flamborough, Bempton and Buckton. there were 19 reports of Flamborough and Bempton ringed birds moving to other localities together with 8 findings of birds which had been ringed previously elsewhere.  3 foreign reports of Buckton-ringed birds were also notable.

  Selected 2022 ringing recoveries involving the Flamborough Headland

  Dunnock

  TW83820       3       12/10/2020     Flamborough Head

                         Xf     27/03/2022     Asbach, Neuwied, Koblenz, Germany  50⁰40’N 7⁰25’E    639 km SE 531 days

  The majority of British born Dunnock will move less than a kilometre from their birth place. However, birds from northern and western Europe can migrate, sometimes substantial distances. This constitutes only the second foreign interchange since the formation of the Bird Observatory, since a Swedish ringed Dunnock was trapped at Flamborough in October 2010.

  Blackbird

  LN16155     3F      22/11/2020     Flamborough Head

                      Xf      09/02/2022     Bielside, West Barns, East Lothian  261 km NW    444 days

  LN16342      3F      29/11/2020    Flamborough Head

                        R       16/05/2021    Lemland, Ahvenanmaa, Finland  59⁰49’N 19⁰55’E    1366km ENE  168days

  A typical autumn ringed continental Blackbird, back to its southern Finland breeding grounds in May

  LL66842       4M     30/12/2020    Harrington Airfield, Northamptonshire

                         R    25/06/2022      Flamborough Head   198 km NNE    542 days

  Sedge Warbler

  S702913      3J    06/07/2018     Flamborough Head

                       R    08/05/2022     Flamborough Head     1402 days

  No movement involved here, but this bird has returned for its 4^th breeding season since being first ringed as a juvenile bird.

  Chiffchaff

  NBL739      3       12/09/2021    Flamborough Head

                       R     16/07/2022   Woolston Eyes Sewage works, Warrington   180km WSW  307 days      

  R330102      4      19/04/2021    Lagskar Bird Observatory, Lemland, Ahvenanmaa, Finland  59⁰49’N 19⁰55’E

                       R     16/04/2022    Flamborough Head    1367 km WSW   362 days   

  NBL289       3      14/09/2021   Flamborough Head 

                       Xf    04/10/2022   Mouguerre,  Pyrenees-Atlantiques, France  43⁰27’N 1⁰25’W   1189 km 385days

  R330102  came from the same place in Finland as the Blackbird above!  The two captures of this bird in April of successive years make it difficult to predict where this bird will end up breeding. 

  Starling

  LN16968          3J      12/06/2021     Flamborough Head

                            R      13/01/2022     Morecambe, Lancashire  182 km W     215 days

  LN16081          3F     15/06/2021     Flamborough Head

                            R      01/05/2022     Strensall, York   62 km W  320 days                         

  LR43367          3F      12/07/2021    Flamborough Head

                             R      07/05/2022    Strensall, York   62 km W  299 days                         

                             R      10/05/2022    Strensall, York   62 km W  302 days       

  LR44121          3J       31/05/2022    Flamborough Head

                           Xf      24/06/2022    Hilderthorpe, Bridlington  10 km SW   24 days

  LN08670          3J       20/06/2021   Osgodby, North Yorks

                             R       30/04/2022    Flamborough Head   24 km SE,  314 days

  LR16098           3J       07/06/2021   Leeds, West Yorks

                             R       07/01/2022   Flamborough Head  98 km ENE  214 days  

  LN69663           3J       11/06/2020   Beckfield Lane, York

                             R        01/06/2022  Flamborough Head  70 km ENE    720 days   

  LL44955            3J       02/08/2019   Cromdale, Highland

                             R        01/06/2022   Flamborough Head    418 km SSE   1034 days

  LR44132           3J       31/05/2022    Flamborough Head

                            Xf      07/09/2022    Terrington St. Clement, King’s Lynn, Norfolk  154 km S   99 days

  71043743            1       16/05/2022    Halloh, Itzehoe, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany  53⁰58’N 9⁰30’E

                              R      22/12/2022    Flamborough Head    627 km W  220 days

  The last recovery shows a young bird dispersing from the continent for its first winter in the U.K.

  Tree Sparrow

  ACP3893        2       11/11/2021   Spurn B. O., Kilnsea   

                          R      21/03/2022   Flamborough Head  60km NNW   130 days 

  ACP2236         3J     12/09/2021   Spurn B. O. Kilnsea.

                           R      25/04/2022   Flamborough Head  58 km NNW   225 days

  TW84411        1      19/05/2022   Bempton Cliffs RSPB

                          R     02/10/2022    Spurn B.O.  Kilnsea    63 km SSE    136 days

  TW84404        1      19/05/2022  Bempton Cliffs RSPB

                          R     03/10/2022    Spurn B.O.  Kilnsea    63 km SSE    137 days

  TW84309        1      19/05/2022  Bempton Cliffs RSPB

                          R     03/10/2022    Spurn B.O.  Kilnsea    63 km SSE    145 days

  Five interchanges between Spurn and Flamborough Bird Observatories, emphasising the southerly autumnal movements of East Yorkshire Tree Sparrow.

  Chaffinch   

  D803150        3F      20/09/2015  Flamborough Head

                          R      01/05/2022  Bempton Cliffs RSPB  7km NW   2415 days

  A good age for a Chaffinch, although they can achieve double figures.

  Key to symbols and terms used

  Age/Sex:	Manner of recovery:
  1   nestling	R   caught and released by a ringer
  2   fully grown, year of hatching quite unknown	Xf   found freshly dead or dying
  3   definitely hatched during current calendar year
  3J  still in partial juvenile plumage
  4   hatched before current calendar year, exact year unknown
  M   male
  F   female

• August 2023

  A productive month for headland ringing with 41 sessions being held at 6 different sites.

  A fantastic total of 532 birds were caught of which 493 were newly ringed and 41 were retraps.

  A good number of migrants were ringed including the first Pied Flycatcher and Redstart of the autumn.

  An amazing 76 Willow Warblers were ringed alongside 18 Chiffchaff, 23 Blackcap, 25 Whitethroat, 3 Sedge warblers and 3 Reed warblers.

  

• July 2023

  A very quiet month for ringing, mostly due to the wet and windy weather.

  Just 7 sessions at 3 sites.

  107 birds were caught, with 98 being newly ringed and 8 retraps.

  54 Starlings were ringed.

  The CES session saw us catch 46 birds of 14 species. Only 6 were retraps. Notable were 15 Chiffchaff.

  

• June 2023

  A quieter month for ringing on the headland with just 10 sessions at 3 different sites.

  A total of 324 birds of 21 species were caught. 272 were newly ringed with 52 retraps.

  Again Starlings featured heavily with 151 ringed, 18 Greenfinch were notable. Hopefully this is a welcome recovery of the species.

  3 sessions were run at our CES site at Thornwick with a total of 83 birds caught of which 50 were newly ringed and 33 retraps.

  

• May 2023

  23 ringing sessions held at 6 different sites including a CES session at Thornwick.

  A total of 391 birds of 26 species were caught, of which 280 were new and 110 retraps plus a secondFrench ringed Goldfinch caught in a village garden, the first one being caught in April at the same site.

  The most numerous bird was the Starling with 186 ringed.

  The CES session yielded 54 birds comprising 17 species of which 36 were new and 18 retraps. The retraps provide us with valuable data about longevity and site fidelity.

  Highlights from the session included a Redwing, 7 Willow warbler, 5 Chiffchaff, 8 Lesser Whitethroat, 7 Whitethroat and a single Garden Warbler.

  

• CES #7

  Our 7th (out of 12) Constant Effort Site session at Thornwick Bay proved to be a busy one with 40 new birds and 6 recaptures. Incredibly we caught 15 new chiffchaffs which we believe is the third highest total ever caught at Flamborough. The highest was 25 caught in October 1998. 12 of these birds were newly fledged.

  Other highlights included a flurry of linnets and a yellowhammer.

  Totals can be found here

  

  

  

• April 2023

  April saw an improvement in the weather on the headland allowing us to run 22 session over 4 sites.

  This saw us catch a total of 265 birds of which we ringed 178 and processed 87 retraps.

  An impressive 27 Yellowhammers were ringed, these buntings are sadly in decline in the UK, now being a red-listed species.

  Yellowhammers are a bird of open countryside and on of our most familiar farmland species. Typically seen in hedgerows, and singing their ‘a little bit of bread and no cheese’ song from a suitable song post.

  It is believed the decline in Yellowhammers is linked to food availability as outside of the breeding season they are dependent on large grass seeds (which includes cereal seeds).

  We have created a new supplementary feeding area at one of our ringing sites to try and help our local Yellowhammers as well as other birds such as Tree Sparrows, Reed Buntings and finches, especially through the winter months.

  April saw the start of the warblers returning to breeding sites with us catching 13 Blackcap, 11 Chiffchaff, 5 Willow Warbler and 1 Whitethroat.

  Interestingly a French ringed Goldfinch was caught in a village garden, likely this was originally a UK bird that had migrated over into Europe for the winter and is now returning here to breed.

  

• February & March 2023

  February is historically the quietest month for ringing at Flamborough, and this year was no different, strong winds and rain meaning we only managed six garden sessions at three sites.

  This yielded 33 birds of which 24 were newly ringed and 9 were retraps.

  March saw fewer sessions, only 4, but as we returned to our south landing site we saw a greater number of birds and species.

  Over the four sessions at just 2 sites we caught 83 birds of 20 different species. Of these 56 were newly ringed and 27 retraps.

  Thrushes were the most numerous birds caught with 15 new Blackbirds, alongside a bird originally ringed in Norway.  Also 6 new Starlings, 3 new Song Thrush and 2 new Redwing.

  

• January 2023

  A quiet month as always, mostly due to the weather as our ringers are constrained
  by the strength of the wind.

  
  A total of 12 sessions were held over 4 garden sites, including a new garden in
  Bempton village.

  
  A total of 106 birds were caught of 11 species. Of these 93 were newly ringed with
  13 retraps.

  
  Blackbirds were the most numerous species with 31 new birds being ringed. A
  single Black-headed Gull was a notable catch.

  

• CES 2022

  In 2022 we completed our second year of the constant effort site at Thornwick.
  CES (Constant Effort Site) is a BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) led project aimed
  at monitoring bird populations through time, in order to aid effective conservation. It
  looks to monitor numbers of birds (abundance), the number of births (breeding
  success or productivity) and deaths, usually recorded as the number that don’t die
  (survival).

  
  This data enables the BTO to calculate expected changes in numbers, and at what
  stage in their lifecycle birds may be affected by environmental changes. They can
  then try to find out causes for any decline in numbers.

  
  The CES scheme uses comparisons of the numbers of birds caught each year to
  provide indices of population change, looking at 24 species in particular. This is
  done by standardised mist-netting through the breeding season, consisting of 12
  visits between May and August.

  

  
  We completed 10 out of the 12 sessions, with one of those sessions being cut short
  by rain.

  A total of 408 birds were caught with 221 of these newly ringed and 187 being
  retraps. Retraps are vital as they provide valuable information on the longevity and site fidelity of adult birds.

  
  267 adult birds were ringed alongside 141 juveniles, comprising of 22 species.
  For comparison in 2021 we completed 9 sessions and caught 352 birds of which
  169 were new and 183 retraps.

  240 adults were ringed alongside 112 juveniles, comprising of 27 species.
  

  Juvenile Warblers caught :
  – Willow Warbler 31 (2021=11)
  – Blackcap 14 (2021=3)
  – Lesser Whitethroat 9 (2021=15)
  – Whitethroat 13 (2021=19)
  – Reed Warbler 10 (2021=15)
  – Sedge Warbler 1 (2021=5)
  – Chiffchaff 5 (2021=4)
  

  No juvenile Garden Warblers this year, 1 was caught in 2021.

  

• ROUND UP 2022

  For a variety of reasons this year saw a bias towards garden ringing at
  Flamborough.

  A total of 221 sessions were run over 7 different sites.

  3572 birds were caught with 2879 birds newly ringed and 693 being retraps.

  55 different species were caught.

  The top 5 species ringed were:

  • Starling 486

  • Redwing 332

  • Blackbird 311

  • Goldcrest 196

  • Blue Tit 137

  

  Highlights over the year included:

  • Storm Petrel

  • Pallas’s Leaf Warbler

  • 3 Yellow-browed Warbler

  • 2 Firecrest

  • 2 Cetti’s Warbler

  

  Also notable was the ringing of 10 Rock Pipits at South Landing during migweek, thanks to visiting ringer Jed Andrews who facilitated this session.

  Warblers ringed as follows:

  • Blackcap 76

  • Chiffchaff 73

  • Willow Warbler 52

  • Whitethroat 27

  • Lesser Whitethroat 19

  • Reed Warbler 15

  • Sedge Warbler 3

  No Garden warbler were caught this year.

  These numbers will have been impacted by a reduced amount of ringing at our South Landing site over the summer.

• MIGWEEK 2022

  The observatory’s Migweek sees the ringing team hosting public demonstrations every day at South Landing, as well as sessions at other sites. The event is very popular with locals and visitors with up to 60 people attending the demonstrations each morning.

  We were not blessed with favourable easterly winds this year, but did still have some migration evident with small falls of winter thrushes, Goldcrests and finches

  Over the 9 day event we held ringing every day, miraculously not being thwarted by the weather!

  Our usual ringing team was bolstered by a number of lovely visiting ringers – a massive thank you to everyone who helped the team entertain and educate so many visitors : Jim Morgan, Tony Corscadden, Hugh Brazier, Jenny & Paul Butterworth, Jed Andrews, Ana Cowie, Dave Aitken, Rich Cope, Jo Hood, Andy Hood, Harriet Day, Will Scott, Maddy Hines, Elliot Morley, Ian Marshall, Poppy Rummery & Josh Saunders. Special thanks to our helpers : Tony Hood, Mike Coverdale, Angela Belk and Emma Dawber for endless cups of tea, cake and generally keeping us going.

  

  Over the 9 days a total 28 sessions were held at 5 sites, with the public demo run every morning at South Landing, this is our best opportunity to engage with visitors and explain the reasons we ring birds at the observatory and also highlight the work of the observatory.

  This year we estimate we engaged over 600 people at the event, including lots of families, with the children being captivated by seeing birds up close, hopefully future naturalists in the making.

  647 birds of 31 species were caught over the 9 days, with 552 newly ringed birds and 95 retraps.

  Highlights being:

  1 Yellow-browed Warbler

  2 Cetti’s Warbler

  87 Goldcrest

  154 Redwing

  78 Tree Sparrow

  1 Brambling

  1 Siskin

  1 Barn Owl

  1 Sparrowhawk

  

  Thanks to the expertise of one of our visiting ringers Jed Andrews who ran a number of spring trapping sessions on the beach we also caught 10 Rock pipits, This gave some of our ringers the chance to see the species in the hand for the first time, catching 9 in one session also enabled us to see adults alongside birds born this year and gain valuable experience of the plumage differences that enable us to age the birds.

  We are hopeful that the Rock pipits we have ringed may provide some interesting data over the coming years as our wintering pipits are often migrants. We regularly see Norwegian colour ringed Rock Pipits at south landing beach.

  A very successful Migweek with lots of happy visitors, roll on Migweek 2023!!

  

• September 2022

  An overall quiet month that saw only 10 sessions at four sites.

  254 birds were caught of 26 species, of these 232 were new to ring and 22 retraps.

  The highlights being 108 Meadow pipits, 15 Chiffchaff and the first Great Black-backed Gull to be ringed at the observatory.

  

• Ringing Report 2021

  The Flamborough Bird Observatory (FBO) ringing group comprises the historical recording area east of the Dykes on Flamborough Headland together with operations at Bempton, mainly at Bempton Cliffs RSPB Reserve.  Totals of ringed birds are also given for Buckton, however all ringing at that site is independent of the FBO ringing group.

  The purpose of the ringing group will be to gather data on wild birds, especially migrants, which are found in the FBO area.  The secondary purpose will be to assist in the training of people in the techniques of trapping, handling and ringing wild birds. In 2021 we trialled a constant effort site (CES) in the scrub at the Thornwick Bay Holiday Camp.  The CES scheme is a national standardised ringing programme started in 1983 and now including c.150 different locations throughout Britain and Ireland.  The scheme provides valuable trend information on abundance of adults and juveniles, productivity and also adult survival rates for 24 species of common songbird.

  Totals of new birds caught on the outer head were 3518 individuals of 57 species which is the second highest ever for the bird observatory, although one must take into account the unprecedented number of Starling which were ringed in a Flamborough garden. Indeed the two Flamborough gardens in the village and at Ocean View accounted for 72% of all birds ringed, leaving short of a thousand birds ringed ‘in the field’.  In fairness we experienced a year of low numbers in evidence for much of the season, with daily catches often below 20 new birds. The ‘waves’ of autumn migrants failed to materialise, which was no better illustrated than by the paltry total of Goldcrest caught, 17, as compared to our average of 300+ over the previous 5 years.

  The top 5 species ringed east of the dykes during 2021 were:   Starling 1577, Redwing 227, Blackbird 230, Tree Sparrow 178 and Goldfinch 122.  Migrant warbler numbers were a somewhat disappointing total of 283 after a recent sequence of good years. Despite this Reed Warbler at 20 birds returned its best total in the history of the Bird Observatory and 27 Lesser Whitethroat equalled last year’s record-breaking total. The Blackcap (65) and Chiffchaff (38) totals were both extremely disappointing after their recent highest ever year totals!

  Our now annual targeting of Meadow Pipit passage during September turned out to be a non-event with a paltry 33 birds eventually captured and 20 of these were on a single day, the 12^th Sept. The use of mp3. bird lures is essential in order to catch this species in any meaningful numbers, as also seems to be the case for Redwing. The total for Redwing of 220 birds was the second-best annual total for the Observatory, added to which a Belgian-ringed bird of this species was captured in October.

  A breakdown of birds ringed by month is given in the table below:

  Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
  73	35	26	139	155	818	661	424	445	455	182	104

  The high totals for June, July and August were, in the main, the result of ‘whoosh-netting’ Starlings. 80% of all new birds caught in these months were of that species.

  Aside from that, the two most productive months were as usual September and October, traditionally the months when the headland experiences its highest numbers of migrant birds. The Ringing and Migration Week (October 9^th – 16^th) held in conjunction with our friends at Filey Bird Observatory returned a disappointing 308 new birds of 29 species ringed on the outer head. 16 sessions at 4 sites over the 8 consecutive days, averaged less than 20 new birds each session.  The effort was there, but the birds weren’t! 

  The bird of the year must surely be the Red-breasted Flycatcher caught at South Landing during Ringing and Migration Week.  The number of Goldfinch (122) ringed was again the highest year total since the Observatory was founded, whereas Lesser Redpoll and Yellow-browed Warbler were noticeable by their absence – a meagre 8 and 1 individual, respectively, caught during the whole of the autumn.  

   Flamborough Bird Observatory would like to thank the landowners on whose property the ringers set their nets;  The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Flamborough Head Golf Club and The East Riding of Yorkshire Council and the RSPB Bempton Cliffs.  We would also like to thank individuals who gave donations during the ringing and migration week, with which we were able to buy some new equipment.  

  All ringing efforts of the Flamborough Bird Observatory group, East of the Dykes and at Bempton were supported by David Aitken, Sophie Bennett, Phil Bone, Jenny Butterworth, Paul Butterworth, Richard Cope, Tony Corscadden, Ana Cowie, Nathaniel Dargue, Harriet Day, Andy Hood, Jo Hood, Tony Hood, Andy Jayes, Jarrod Johnson, John McEachen, Jim Morgan, Elliot Morley, Poppy Rummery, Saskia Wischnewski, Graham Scott, Will Scott and our friends from the Stanford Ringing Group who stayed a week with us in September;  Stuart Heath, David Neal, Peter Norrie

  Bird ringing to the west of the Dykes was carried out at Bempton and Buckton.

  Bempton Cliffs RSPB 

  Ringing totals were markedly lower at Bempton RSPB in 2021 when compared to the previous year.

  The Tree Sparrow nest record scheme project continued into a fourth, successful consecutive year with 272 nestlings  ringed from the nest boxes. 

  In addition 10 general netting sessions were carried out between May and October, averaging 34 new birds per visit.  This site has the potential to do so much better if we could increase the manpower.  The year’s highlight was the two Yellow-browed Warbler ringed in October. 

  Buckton

  Ringing undertaken by Mark Thomas and Ed Green took place at Buckton in 2021 with a total of 260 new birds of 36 species caught and ringed in the 12-month period. 

  The figures for the year were well below the Buckton twenty-year average, due largely to unconducive autumn weather conditions with no falls of migrants of any significance except for a short spell in mid-August that produced a few days with good numbers of Willow Warblers.

  The combined top five birds ringed for the year were: Willow Warbler 23, Wren 22, Tree Sparrow 20, Blackbird 18, Dunnock 17 and Meadow Pipit 17.

  Two broods of both Barn Owl (5) and Kestrel (8) were ringed. 

  Only one rare/scarce bird was ringed during the year, a Green Warbler on 9th September, a new species for Yorkshire.

  Thanks are extended to landowners Angus Wielkopolski and the Makin family

  Flamborough Headland Ringing Totals

  Species	East of Dykes	Bempton	Buckton	Grand Total
  Storm Petrel	1			1
  Sparrowhawk	2			2
  Kestrel	9		8	17
  Turnstone	3			3
  Kittiwake		1		1
  Woodpigeon	5		1	6
  Collared Dove	1			1
  Barn Owl	1	6	6	13
  Long-eared Owl			1	1
  Great Spotted Woodpecker	6			6
  Swallow	8		3	11
  House Martin	1			1
  Meadow Pipit	34	1	17	52
  Rock Pipit	1			1
  Grey Wagtail	3			3
  Pied Wagtail	1			1
  Wren	81	40	22	143
  Dunnock	110	25	17	152
  Robin	86	14	12	112
  Redstart	2			2
  Whinchat			1	1
  Stonechat		2	1	3
  Wheatear	1			1
  Ring Ouzel	2			2
  Blackbird	231	10	18	259
  Fieldfare	10			10
  Song Thrush	27	5	3	35
  Redwing	227	14	10	251
  Sedge Warbler	17	5	8	30
  Reed Warbler	20	2	5	27
  Lesser Whitethroat	27		3	30
  Whitethroat	65	18	13	96
  Garden Warbler	5		1	6
  Blackcap	65	7	8	80
  Yellow-browed Warbler	1	2		3
  Chiffchaff	38	11	9	58
  Green Warbler			1	1
  Willow Warbler	44	6	23	73
  Goldcrest	19	6	2	27
  Red-breasted Flycatcher	1			1
  Pied Flycatcher	4	1		5
  Long-tailed Tit	39	24		63
  Coal Tit	18			18
  Blue Tit	114	8	7	129
  Great Tit	71	5	9	85
  Treecreeper	4			4
  Magpie	3			3
  Jackdaw	1			1
  Rook	1			1
  Carrion Crow			1	1
  Starling	1577			1577
  House Sparrow	42	1		43
  Tree Sparrow	178	344	20	542
  Chaffinch	49	4	4	57
  Brambling	5	1		6
  Greenfinch	36	1	2	39
  Goldfinch	122	4	2	128
  Siskin	4			4
  Linnet	16	41	6	63
  Lesser Redpoll	8			8
  Bullfinch	36	3		39
  Yellowhammer	25	2	6	33
  Reed Bunting	10	2	10	22
  Total	3518	616	260	4394
  Species total	57	32	34

  Recoveries

  During 2021 for all movements in excess of 5km, there were 21 reports of Flamborough and Bempton ringed birds moving to other localities together with 13 findings of birds which had been ringed previously elsewhere. There were four international exchanges involving, Cormorant, Blackbird, Redwing and Lesser Redpoll. 

  Selected 2021 ringing recoveries involving the Flamborough Headland

  Cormorant

  291490               1       03/06/2021     Wasservogelreservat, Wallnau Germany    54⁰46’N 11⁰03’E        

                            VV    23/10/2021      Flamborough Head  54⁰ 7’N, 0⁰ 6’W     721 km W    163 days          

  Barn Owl

  GC97259           1        27/06/2019     Bempton Cliffs RSPB 

                            Inj      05/02/2021     Carnaby, Bridlington   10 km SW  589 days

  Barn Owl are an often reported bird when ringed, however movements reflect their sedentary nature. The longest distance for a Flamborough ringed bird to figure in these reports is 25km.

  Blackbird

  LN15270          3F      28/11/2020    Flamborough Head    

                           Xf      24/02/2021    Hagg Wood, Kirkbymoorside, North Yorks   58km WNW    88days

  LH06373          3F      09/11/2017    Flamborough Head  54⁰ 7’N, 0⁰ 6’W     

                           Xf      29/03/2021    Habet, Sandnes, Rogaland, Norway  58⁰49’N 5⁰43’E  633 km NE 1236 days

  Redwing

  10X22814         3       13/10/2020    Nijlen, Antwerpen,  Belgium  51⁰08’N 4⁰40’E 

                            R      12/10/2021    Flamborough Head  54⁰ 7’N, 0⁰ 6’W     461 km NW    364 days  

  Lesser Whitethroat

  AVN4543         3        10/10/2020    Bempton Cliffs RSPB

                          VV      18/01/2021    Elvington, York    57 km WSW   100 days

  Re-sighted in a York garden in December, is the Lesser Whitethroat developing a habit of wintering in Britain?

  Chiffchaff

  KAN057          5        26/04/2020     Flamborough Head

                           R       01/05/2021     North Ronaldsay Bird Obs.  Orkney   601 km NNW   370 days         

  NBL722           3J      24/08/2021     Flamborough Head

                            R      08/10/2021     Filey Brigg Country Park, Filey, N.Yorks    17 km NW    45 days

  Great Tit

  AFR2756        3J      05/08/2021    Marton, Sinnington, North Yorks

                           R      08/11/2021    Flamborough Head    53 km ESE    95 days

  AVN5103       3M    17/09/2021    Bempton Cliffs RSPB 

                           R      09/102021    Filey Brigg Country park, North Yorks    10 km NW    22 days

  ACN7259        3J     19/07/2020    Spennithorne, North Yorks

                            R     06/06/2021    Flamborough Head    112 km ESE    322 days.

  Two exceptional movements for birds of this species.

  Starling

  LN16380         3J      13/06/2021     Flamborough Head

                          Xf      25/06/2021     Fourstones, Hexham, Newcastle     167 km NW    12 days

  LN69646         3J       09/06/2020     York   

                           R        22/06/2021     Flamborough Head   70 km ENE   378 days

  LL69564         3F      13/09/2019     Flamborough Head

                           R      02/06/2021     Osgodby, North Yorks    24 km NW   628 days 

  LN08559         3J       13/06/2021    Osgodby, North Yorks

                           R       24/06/2021     Flamborough Head   24 km SE  11 days

  In addition to these 2 latter records, there were 10 more individuals that moved between Flamborough Head and Osgodby or vice versa.

  Tree Sparrow

  TW84136            1        24/06/2021     Bempton Cliffs RSPB

                              R       11/11/2021     Kilnsea Clays, Spurn B.O.      65km SSE    140 days

  AVN4884            2       12/10/2020     Flamborough Head

                              Xf      23/11/2021    Dunnington Common, York    60km WSW   407 days

  Goldfinch

  AKH9385         6M       15/04/2020    Flamborough Head

                             R         03/03/2021   Little Barningham, nr. Aylsham, Norfolk      164km SSE   322 days

  Greenfinch

  VZ05050           3M     05/10/2020    Filey Brigg Country Park

                            5M     01/02/2021    Flamborough Head  17 km SE    119 days

                              R      06/06/2021    Flamborough Head  17 km SE    244 days

  Lesser Redpoll

  APB9389          3M      14/11/2018     Flamborough Head

                              R       07/11/2020     nr. Hollesley Heath, Suffolk     252 km SSE   724 days

  APB9422             3        30/09/2018      Flamborough Head 

                              R        07/03/2021     Beechamwell, Swaffam, Norfolk    173 km SSE    889 days 

  AVN5336            3        28/09/2020     Flamborough Head

                               R       16/10/2020     Bambois, Namur, Belgium  50⁰22’N 4⁰42’E    528 km SE  18 days

  AVN4855            3        10/102020      Flamborough Head

                               R        2204/2021     Brandon, Norfolk     192 km SSE   194 days

  A pretty impressive set of re-captures involving a species for which in most years very few are caught at Flamborough.

  Reed Bunting  

  AED1942          3M      29/09/2020      Filey Brigg Country Park, North Yorks

                               R      09/01/2021      Flamborough Head     17 km SE   102 days

  Key to symbols and terms used:

  Age/Sex:	Manner of recovery:
  1   nestling	R   caught and released by a ringer
  2   fully grown, year of hatching quite unknown	VV  sight record
  3   definitely hatched during current calendar year	Xf   found freshly dead or dying
  3J  still in partial juvenile plumage	Inj  found injured, later released
  4   hatched before current calendar year, exact year unknown
  5   hatched in the previous calendar year
  6   hatched at least before last calendar years, exact year unknown
  M   male
  F   female

  Age/Sex:	Manner of recovery:
  1   nestling	R   caught and released by a ringer
  2   fully grown, year of hatching quite unknown	VV  sight record
  3   definitely hatched during current calendar year	Xf   found freshly dead or dying
  3J  still in partial juvenile plumage	Inj  found injured, later released
  4   hatched before current calendar year, exact year unknown
  5   hatched in the previous calendar year
  6   hatched at least before last calendar years, exact year unknown
  M   male
  F   female

• August 2022

  August saw the final CES sessions for this year alongside the usual garden ringing, with 13 different sessions held over 4 sites.

  The team caught 265 birds of 25 different species, of these 225 were new birds alongside 40 retraps.

  The CES session held on Monday 15th of August was a particularly productive one with 62 birds caught of 14 species of which only 6 birds were retraps. Also rewardingly 5 species of warblers were caught: 12 Willow Warbler, 6 Reed Warbler, 5 Blackcap, 5 Lesser Whitethroat and 5 Whitethroats.

  In total across August we caught 20 Willow Warblers and 15 Reed Warblers, we are hopeful that these migrants will return to breed next year and be re-caught here providing valuable survival and breeding data. We may even get details if one is caught abroad in their wintering grounds…..

  

• July 2022

  July was a relatively quiet month for ringing with the team holding 12 different sessions over 5 different sites.

  Sessions included 2 at our Constant Effort Site (CES), ringing at three headland gardens and a very popular public Storm Petrel Session. 

  The Storm Petrel session was held at our seawatch observatory as part of FBO’s nocturnal wildlife weekend. We erected six 12m nets up in pairs along the cliff top with tape lures set at each pair. Around 20 observers waited patiently until almost 3am when we caught a single Storm Petrel on our last net round! This gave us all a wonderful opportunity to see this tiny oceanic wanderer up close, a real treat as these birds are occasionally seen passing the headland but always very distantly. When releasing the Storm Petrel it was very interesting to see it turning its head, listening to the sea and then fly off strongly towards the waves.

  Over the sessions we caught  181 birds of 24 different species, 153 of these were new birds and 28 were retraps.

  

• An unexpected visitor

  Wednesday 13th July saw a very unexpected visitor to our house.

  A female Sparrowhawk decided to chase a terrified juvenile Starling into our kitchen, and whilst the Starling cowered out of sight behind a knife block, the Sparrowhawk sat on the windowsill looking puzzled as to where her lunch had gone and why she couldn’t get out!

  As she was sat calmly facing away from me I decided to catch hold of her gently from behind, preventing her hurting herself flying around and also giving me the opportunity to ring her. 

  The female bird was aged as a 5 (born the previous calendar year), she was in active wing and tail moult, clearly showing 2 generations of feathers, with the paler brown worn feathers being the remaining juvenile ones. The bird’s iris was yellow, but not as deep yellow as that of a bird older than a 2nd calendar year. 

  The bird was weighed and her wing measured, weight-271grams, wing 224mm.

  The Starling lived to see another day and the Sparrowhawk was released with a shiny new ring!

  

• June 2022

  18 ringing sessions were held in June at 3 sites, mostly garden ringing bar 3 more CES sessions. 381 birds were captured with 295 of these being newly ringed, 23 species were caught.

  Starlings were the most numerous with 225 newly ringed, we are lucky to have a healthy breeding population of these wonderful red-listed birds at Flamborough, we also catch many migrant Starlings over autumn and winter, when our resident numbers are bolstered by northern birds which come here to over-winter.3 more CES sessions were held which saw us ring 37 new birds and re-capture 41. 19 different species were caught including 6 species of warblers.

  

• May 2022

  May saw 19 ringing sessions on the headland at 5 different sites. Over these sessions 333 birds were caught of which 195 were newly ringed. 28 different species were caught.

  The top 5 species being ringed were

  Starling                91, 39 were new.

  Dunnock              31, 13 were new.

  Blackbird             25, 13 were new.

  Goldfinch             19, all new.

  House Sparrow     18, 17 were new.

  It was nice to catch 62 warblers of 6 species, the most numerous being Willow Warbler closely followed by Lesser Whitethroat.

  May saw the first 3 sessions at our Constant Effort Site (CES), over the three sessions 59 birds were newly ringed and 48 birds re-trapped, catching birds previously ringed at this site is important as it provides data on survival rates, breeding trends and site fidelity. 

  

• 12/06/22

  Sunday 12 June was the observatory’s fifth CES ringing session. Now we are approaching mid-June we are starting to catch fledglings like these cute lesser whitethroats (sylvia curruca), mother was caught too!

  

  Ageing this common whitethroat (sylvia communis) proved tricky. Whilst its primaries, secondaries and tail feathers looked adult, and no clear moult break in its greater coverts could be detected the small and medium alula feathers look juvenile. On the face of it one might lean towards an age code of 6 (adult) but the two alula feathers caution against this. Regardless, it does raise the question of aberrant moult strategies since juveniles in their African wintering grounds are only thought to undertake a partial moult of body feathers and wing coverts.

  

• April 2022

  April saw us carrying out 15 ringing sessions over 5 different sites, catching 239 birds of 26 species. Of these 164 were newly ringed.

  We held a pre-season session at our Constant Effort Site (CES) to check all our equipment and net lanes were ready to go for the first session in May. We caught a total of 29 birds of which 12 were re-traps (birds ringed at Flamborough previously), these birds will provide the BTO with valuable data about survival rates, longevity and site fidelity, especially the returning migrant warblers. We re-trapped 4 Willow Warblers and 1 Whitethroat, it will be interesting to look at the data and see if these were adults/juveniles when first caught and the original year of capture.

  Watch this space for updates of the results of our CES sessions….

  Most of April’s other sessions have been garden ringing, seeing us catching some of our resident breeding birds such as Starlings, Coal Tits, and both Tree and House sparrows.

  Given most of these species are in decline we need all the data we can to pass on to the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) in order to allow them to help shape conservation policy in the future.

  

  

  

• Ageing dunnocks

  Ageing dunnocks (Prunella modularis) is notoriously tricky. This bird’s feathers are glossy and deeply coloured, the buff tips to the greater coverts are only on the outer vane of the feather and the boundaries between the dark centres and the red-brown leading edges and the buff tips are well defined. Also there is no moult break within the greater coverts.

  

  
  The tail feathers though worn – dunnocks undergo a complete moult in summer – are broad, glossy and strongly textured.

  

  
  The tertials, primary coverts and alula are broad and rounded, the secondaries broad and square-ended – indicative of an adult, and the primary coverts do not show discrete black tips forming a short wing-bar which is typical of immature birds.

  

  
  The iris though clear and bright is grey-brown as opposed to the red-brown/burgundy typical of an older bird.

  

• March 2022

  Again limited ringing opportunities due to windy and wet weather, however we did manage a day of site preparation and ringing back at South Landing for the first time this year. Alongside tidying our net lanes, we cleared some long grass to allow the orchids to continue their spread.

  March saw 15 sessions held at 3 different sites, with a total of 157 birds caught. Of these 117 were newly ringed birds of 24 different species.

  Highlights being:

  21 redwing, there appears to have been quite a number of these lovely thrushes passing through Flamborough on their way back to Scandinavia to breed.

  9 siskins, a seldom caught bird at Flamborough and very unusual to catch a flock!

  3 chiffchaff, probably the first of our returning spring migrants.

  

  

• January 2022

  January is always a very quiet month for ringing at Flamborough, as the weather is often too windy to put up our nets, luckily we have resident ringers able to catch birds in their gardens with other methods such as walk-in traps and whoosh nets.

  
  All our ringing sessions bar one this month were carried out in Flamborough gardens, 13 sessions were held over 4 sites. This resulted in catching 65 birds of 10 species, 44 of these were newly ringed birds. 21 birds were re-traps, including a Blue tit re-caught in the garden were it was ringed as juvenile in July 2020. Re-trapping birds that we have ringed helps build a picture of their longevity and distribution.

  

  
  The most commonly caught birds being Blackbirds and Starlings, the headland often holds good numbers of both these species over winter, with our resident birds being joined by migrant visitors.

  
  The highlight of the month was a single Stonechat caught at South Landing beach.

  
  Work has continued on our CES site with members of the team assessing the ringing ride layout, cutting new rides and carrying out maintenance ready for the season ahead.

  

  

  

• CES UPDATE

  2021 saw the FBOT ringing group trialling a CES site at Thornwick. 

  CES (Constant Effort Site) is a BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) led project aimed at monitoring bird populations through time, in order to aid effective conservation. It looks to monitor numbers of birds (abundance), the number of births (breeding success or productivity) and deaths, usually recorded as the number that don’t die (survival).

  This data enables the BTO to calculate expected changes in numbers, and at what stage in their lifecycle birds may be affected by environmental changes. They can then try to find out causes for any decline in numbers.

  The CES scheme uses comparisons of the numbers of birds caught each year to provide indices of population change, looking at 24 species in particular. This is done by standardised mist-netting through the breeding season, consisting of 12 visits between May and August.

  

  The 24 species are:

  • Song Thrush

  • Willow Tit

  • Dunnock

  • Willow Warbler

  • Bullfinch

  • Reed Bunting

  • Wren

  • Robin

  • Blackbird

  • Cetti’s Warbler

  • Sedge Warbler

  • Reed Warbler

  • Whitethroat

  • Lesser Whitethroat

  • Garden Warbler

  • Blackcap

  • Chiffchaff

  • Long-tailed Tit

  • Blue Tit

  • Great Tit

  • Treecreeper

  • Chaffinch

  • Greenfinch

  • Goldfinch

  Of these 24 species, 22 are known breeding birds within the Flamborough Bird Observatory recording area.

  Despite some poor weather conditions the FBOT team managed to complete 9 out of the 12 visits.

  Some 169 birds of 27 species were ringed.

  Of the 24 species of concern the following were caught:

                                       ADULTS            JUVENILES

  Song Thrush                      4                        2                           

  Dunnock                              3                        6

  Willow Warbler                   11                        8

  Bullfinch                               6                        4

  Reed Bunting                      4                        0

  Wren                                     7                        6

  Robin                                    0                        2

  Blackbird                              7                        0

  Sedge Warbler                   6                        3

  Reed Warbler                      3                      13          

  Whitethroat                         16                      10

  Lesser Whitethroat           10                        6          

  Garden Warbler                  0                        1

  Blackcap                              4                        3

  Chiffchaff                             4                        3

  Long-tailed Tit                   3                        2                          (+3 un-aged birds)

  Blue Tit                                 5                        6

  Great Tit                               6                        2

  Greenfinch                            3                        1

  Goldfinch                              4                        0

  

  Particularly rewarding was the numbers of warblers, including juveniles of every species that we caught.

  A special highlight was the stunning male Ring Ouzel we caught right at the start of the CES season, other birds species caught include Meadow Pipit, Redwing, House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Linnet and Yellowhammer.

  The CES site has been visited this year by members of the team with some adjustments to the positions of net rides made to try and maximise the numbers of birds caught. The team are looking forward to our second year and hoping to re-catch some of the birds we ringed last year in order to gather valuable data on survival and site fidelity.

  Look out for more CES updates on the blog from May.

• 2021 ROUND-UP

  2021 saw another year of Covid disruption to our ringing efforts on the headland (East of the dykes), despite this we still managed almost 170 sessions over 9 sites. We managed to catch just over 3500 birds of 54 species, with highlights being Red-breasted Flycatcher, Storm Petrel, Ring Ouzel and a solitary Yellow-browed Warbler. An amazing 1490 Starlings have been ringed, the majority by Paul & Jenny Butterworth in their village garden, hopefully some of these will be recaptured in foreign lands!

  
  This year also saw us trial our constant effort site at Thornwick, this BTO led project aims to collect data on bird populations-are they stable, declining or increasing, as well as monitoring abundance, breeding successes and survival rates. This is done by ringing over a set date period with standardised mist nets. We managed to complete 9 out of the 12 sessions (some missed due to bad weather) and ringed 169 birds of 27 species. Our surprise of the sessions being a stunning male Ring Ouzel. We were pleased to catch 8 species of Warbler and juveniles of every species too.
  

  Of the 24 species that the CES project monitors we managed to catch 20, which are:

  
  Song Thrush

  Blackbird

  Dunnock

  Bullfinch

  Goldfinch

  Greenfinch

  Wren

  Robin

  Reed Bunting

  Blue Tit

  Great Tit

  Long-tailed Tit

  Chiffchaff

  Willow Warbler

  Blackcap

  Garden Warbler

  Sedge Warbler

  Reed Warbler

  Whitethroat

  Lesser Whitethroat

  
  We will be running our CES site again in 2022, hopefully we will recapture some of our birds ringed this year and gather some valuable data.

  
  The ringing team again took part in the annual Migweek event held in Oct, despite the lack of exciting winds to bring us birds we still managed to entertain over 300 members of the public at ringing demos. We were able to explain the importance of ringing, what data we collect and why as well as showing birds such as Red-breasted Flycatcher, Yellow-browed Warbler, Redwing and lots of other species. We will be running daily demos again at Migweek 2022. 

  
  Onwards and upwards to 2022! Hopefully we will have good winds, dry weather and lots of birds!

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• November

  November saw us carry out just 14 ringing sessions, mostly in local gardens.

  We caught 198 birds of 21 species, of which we ringed 161 new birds.

  The stand out highlight of November being 2 Fieldfare caught in one headland session. Notoriously good at escaping mist nets Fieldfares are not often caught at Flamborough, and we were pleased to catch a male and a female which gave us a chance to compare the plumage differences between the sexes.

  A male shows dark or black tail feathers; reddish feathers on the back with blackish centres; most have a broad mark on crown feathers. The female has  dark brown tail feathers but not black; dull reddish feathers on back with dark centre (but not blackish); most have a thin mark on crown feathers.

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  FULL TOTALS CAN BE FOUND ON TREKTELLEN
• October

  Constant south-westerly winds meant a severe shortage of migrants on the headland throughout October, there were a couple of days where a brief change in the wind brought small influxes of redwings but very little else.

  October sees FBO hold the annual Migweek event, at which the ringers host daily public demonstrations. These give us great opportunities to engage with the public and highlight the importance of the BTO ringing scheme. All the demos were fantastically popular and our amazing team of ringers engaged with over 300 people throughout the week.

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  A big thank you to the team for putting in so much effort, especially given how few birds were around, the Migweek ringing team included : Jim Morgan, Tony Corscadden, Phil Bone, Jenny & Paul Butterworth, Dave Aitken, Ana Cowie, Andy Hood, Will Scott, Elliot Morley, Jo Hood, Andy Jayes, Jarred Johnson, Nathaniel Dargue and Harriet Day.

  October saw us catch 510 birds of 30 different species, 416 of these were newly ringed with 94 retraps. We held 26 ringing sessions over 6 sites. For comparison, in October 2020 we caught 1510 birds of 39 species with 1284 being new and 226 retraps.

  October highlights were a red-breasted flycatcher, yellow-browed warbler, 7 lesser redpolls, 2 grey wagtails and the capture of a Belgian ringed redwing.

  

  OCTOBER TOTALS CAN BE FOUND ON TREKTELLEN
• My Migweek diary 2021

  Unexpected visitor

  Day 1:  My Migweek; Eager to get out ringing, it came to me as a pleasant surprise, having the opportunity to ring with Ana at Holmes Gut was a new site for me with lots of potential for migrant birds. We caught a few satisfying birds, a juvenile bullfinch that was wearing a face full of berries, blackbirds that could have well been continental, and a gorgeous male chaffinch, that seemed to be a nice mixture of birds. It was great chatting with Ana, it may have been a quiet morning but it gave me time to learn more. Meanwhile Ana’s friend phoned George, who was ringing at Filey, had phoned with good news. He had just extracted a subalpine warbler! New bird for Filey ringing group, thrilled for him Ana went on to meet him after we finished our mornings ringing.

  

  Quality over quantity

  Day 2: 6.30am starts at South Landing with the Flamborough ringing group, and the stars are still out. With the weather being perfect for us but not for migrating birds I think we did well considering a steady morning. Highlights being a stunning male goldcrest, flock of long -tailed tits and saving the best till last grey wagtail! Quality over quantity it seemed, with good numbers of these wagtails passing through off the sea it was pleasurable to see one ringed. It was also lovely being in company of the Flamborough ringing group that was educating the public with their fantastic knowledge at the ringing demo. Lots of people joined the demo, and were keen to learn what ringing is all about and recognized how much effort goes into Flamborough Observatory.

  

  Enough to raise brows

  Day 3: At Bempton Cliffs with the weather being incredibly unpredictable we made the most of the calm weather getting the nets set up. On our first net round, close to the pond there happened to be a bird I hadn’t ringed before, a stunning little yellow browed Warbler! Thrilled with excitement I quickly put a ring on it, weighed it, measured it and aged it as a young bird. That was enough to put a smile on my face that continued when a flock of 70 redwing flew past, catching some good numbers. Meanwhile the wind and rain decided it didn’t like us ringing so we packed away for the day. Could you believe it by 1.30pm the sun was out and the temperature had suddenly warmed up. The kettle was on and just about boiled when thanks to Flamborough Observatory had flagged up a rare sighting. Snow bunting out on the head, i’ve never seen one before so a brisk walk along the head showed some gorgeous views of the sea followed by 22 common scoters, 4 oystercatchers and 6 people taking a wide berth among the path. My curiosity persisted and that so with another lady and her husband. “its there ” feeding off the path with not a care in the world, after great views a lady walked past flushing it, allowing everyone to get some awesome views in flight and then it landed in the same spot not fazed at all by our presence. The temperature had dropped so I decided to head back and finish my cuppa! What a day.

  

  Bempton’s new bird

  Day 4:  Ringing demo at Bempton cliffs with a great start to the morning, with lots of redwing waking up after their long journeys from possibly Denmark, Iceland and Scandinavia its such an honour to put an english ring on its leg. Later on that morning we caught a few tree sparrows, brambling, long-tailed tits and yesterday’s re-trapped yellow browed warbler. After processing the bird we had learned that within just 24 hours it had 0.3 grams showing a good source of food supply. After a few more net rounds I extracted 3 bullfinches 2 male and 1 female. I didn’t realise that these 3 bullfinches were a new species at Bempton cliffs. Taking them for granted back home, everyone seemed really excited to see them including Dave. By 11am the public seemed to be just as keen as us, sticking around to see what we might catch next. Male chaffinch was nice to see and ring but not just a male chaffinch, one straight off the sea! The males are much darker on the crown and the wing length is much longer as I have learned today. A cup of tea later and a warm sandwich, there was talk of setting up the spring traps in hope of catching some stonechats. Me and Steve were quick to set the spring traps. Seven minutes later we were ringing a female adult stonechat. Stunning birds it seemed she had a little admirer as the male sat patiently on a close teasels, waiting for her. Even a bit of romance going off at Migweek this week.

  

  The one that got away

  Day 5: The one that got away, after a good morning ringing at South Landing extracting and processing redwings, chaffinch, blackbirds, and a few wriggly wrens almost forgetting to mention, the treecreeper, with Jim and the team. In the morning I happened to mention to Tony C that I had never ringed a starling before. Very kindly he offered to take me to Jo and Tony Hood’s garden where they feed them regularly. Following on ringing at South Landing we decided to take down, heading out in hope of catching some starlings. Putting up two nets and Jo had very kindly been buying cheese to lure the mischievous starling. Eventually it worked, as they dropped down to feed and flew safely into the net. However, being as crafty as they are, it escaped out of the net, with the cheese! Nonetheless we did happen to ring some tree sparrows and bitey blue tits. The starlings will have to wait until next year.

  

  I’m very grateful to Dave at Bempton and everyone at Flamborough Observatory for inviting me, It’s such a privilege to join, with kind, welcoming, knowledgeable ringers, giving me the opportunity to learn and ring new birds so thank you for having me. Cant wait until next year!

  By Harriet Day

  FULL TOTALS FROM MIGWEEK CAN BE FOUND ON TREKTELLEN
• 12/10/2021

  One of the highlights of Migweek was this Belgian ringed redwing, ring number 10X22814, FBO’s first foreign controlled redwing.

  The bird is subspecies iliacus and might be considered unusual as Prato, Prato and Chittenden (2011) found most redwings arriving on the east coast in autumn come from Finland or Russia. The Icelandic subspecies coburni is rarely encountered as they winter in Ireland and north-west Scotland.

  The bird is an adult, age code 4. Note the broad tertials, the broad and square-ended secondaries and the minimal pale tipping to the greater coverts and tertials.

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  Also photographed is a juvenile bird , age code 3 for comparison. The bird has retained six juvenile greater coverts with prominent pale tips to the outer webs of the feathers which curve up to the vane of the feathers and narrow, pointed tail feathers.

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  See fulls totals on trektellen
• Ringing Report 2020

  The Flamborough Bird Observatory (FBO) ringing group comprises the historical recording area east of the Dykes on Flamborough Headland together with operations at Bempton, mainly at Bempton Cliffs RSPB Reserve. The purpose of the ringing group is to gather data on wild birds, especially migrants, which are found in the FBO area. The secondary purpose is to assist in the training of people in the techniques of trapping, handling and ringing wild birds.

  The ringing programme was severely interrupted by the Covid lock-down, meaning that people were not allowed to travel from their homes to ring birds and as a result there was no ringing on our public headland sites for a period of over 3 months, from march through to July. Fortunately, we have resident ringers Paul & Jenny Butterworth, in the village and Andy Hood out at Ocean View, who kept the totals ticking over throughout the year and this really made the difference with the two sites accounting for 53% of all birds ringed. South Landing (32%) and Thornwick Bay (9%) accounted for the bulk of the remainder. Holmes Gut (3.5%) proved to be more difficult to work because of the presence of highland cattle for much of the year, despite the low total it still remains one of our important ringing sites on the headland. Offsetting that somewhat was the development of a new ringing site in the scrub near the entrance to Thornwick Bay Holiday Village. This site seems to have good potential and it is hoped that we can register this with The British Trust for Ornithology as a CES (constant effort site). The CES scheme is a national standardised ringing programme which helps provide valuable trend information on abundance of adults and juveniles, productivity and also adult survival rates for species of common songbird.

  Once more, another record-breaking year on the outer head! 4626 birds of 67 species which has more than comfortably passed last year’s record breaking Flamborough year of 3348 birds of 65 species. We have now logged this as the 7th year in succession to record a year-on-year increase in ringing totals and the third year on the bounce that we have achieved a new Flamborough record. New addition to the species list was a Kingfisher caught at Ocean View in June, the very first to be ringed in the FBO area. Other highlights were a Common Crossbill, caught in July, also at Ocean View, which is the first to be caught since the formation of the bird observatory and also the first Grasshopper Warbler for 10 years.
  A breakdown of birds ringed by month is given in the table below:

  The Flamborough Bird Observatory (FBO) ringing group comprises the historical recording area east of the Dykes on Flamborough Headland together with operations at Bempton, mainly at Bempton Cliffs RSPB Reserve. The purpose of the ringing group is to gather data on wild birds, especially migrants, which are found in the FBO area. The secondary purpose is to assist in the training of people in the techniques of trapping, handling and ringing wild birds.

  The ringing programme was severely interrupted by the Covid lock-down, meaning that people were not allowed to travel from their homes to ring birds and as a result there was no ringing on our public headland sites for a period of over 3 months, from march through to July. Fortunately, we have resident ringers Paul & Jenny Butterworth, in the village and Andy Hood out at Ocean View, who kept the totals ticking over throughout the year and this really made the difference with the two sites accounting for 53% of all birds ringed. South Landing (32%) and Thornwick Bay (9%) accounted for the bulk of the remainder. Holmes Gut (3.5%) proved to be more difficult to work because of the presence of highland cattle for much of the year, despite the low total it still remains one of our important ringing sites on the headland. Offsetting that somewhat was the development of a new ringing site in the scrub near the entrance to Thornwick Bay Holiday Village. This site seems to have good potential and it is hoped that we can register this with The British Trust for Ornithology as a CES (constant effort site). The CES scheme is a national standardised ringing programme which helps provide valuable trend information on abundance of adults and juveniles, productivity and also adult survival rates for species of common songbird.

  Once more, another record-breaking year on the outer head! 4626 birds of 67 species which has more than comfortably passed last year’s record breaking Flamborough year of 3348 birds of 65 species. We have now logged this as the 7th year in succession to record a year-on-year increase in ringing totals and the third year on the bounce that we have achieved a new Flamborough record. New addition to the species list was a Kingfisher caught at Ocean View in June, the very first to be ringed in the FBO area. Other highlights were a Common Crossbill, caught in July, also at Ocean View, which is the first to be caught since the formation of the bird observatory and also the first Grasshopper Warbler for 10 years.
  A breakdown of birds ringed by month is given in the table below:

  The Flamborough Bird Observatory (FBO) ringing group comprises the historical recording area east of the Dykes on Flamborough Headland together with operations at Bempton, mainly at Bempton Cliffs RSPB Reserve. The purpose of the ringing group is to gather data on wild birds, especially migrants, which are found in the FBO area. The secondary purpose is to assist in the training of people in the techniques of trapping, handling and ringing wild birds.

  The ringing programme was severely interrupted by the Covid lock-down, meaning that people were not allowed to travel from their homes to ring birds and as a result there was no ringing on our public headland sites for a period of over 3 months, from march through to July. Fortunately, we have resident ringers Paul & Jenny Butterworth, in the village and Andy Hood out at Ocean View, who kept the totals ticking over throughout the year and this really made the difference with the two sites accounting for 53% of all birds ringed. South Landing (32%) and Thornwick Bay (9%) accounted for the bulk of the remainder. Holmes Gut (3.5%) proved to be more difficult to work because of the presence of highland cattle for much of the year, despite the low total it still remains one of our important ringing sites on the headland. Offsetting that somewhat was the development of a new ringing site in the scrub near the entrance to Thornwick Bay Holiday Village. This site seems to have good potential and it is hoped that we can register this with The British Trust for Ornithology as a CES (constant effort site). The CES scheme is a national standardised ringing programme which helps provide valuable trend information on abundance of adults and juveniles, productivity and also adult survival rates for species of common songbird.

  Once more, another record-breaking year on the outer head! 4626 birds of 67 species which has more than comfortably passed last year’s record breaking Flamborough year of 3348 birds of 65 species. We have now logged this as the 7th year in succession to record a year-on-year increase in ringing totals and the third year on the bounce that we have achieved a new Flamborough record. New addition to the species list was a Kingfisher caught at Ocean View in June, the very first to be ringed in the FBO area. Other highlights were a Common Crossbill, caught in July, also at Ocean View, which is the first to be caught since the formation of the bird observatory and also the first Grasshopper Warbler for 10 years.
  A breakdown of birds ringed by month is given in the table below:

  Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
  36	35	88	174	114	348	661	542	786	1289	422	131

  As is the norm, the bulk of our totals are achieved throughout the autumn months, with Aug/Sep/Oct comfortably exceeding 50% of all birds caught. Our annual celebration of migration – Migweek – from the 10th to the 18th October was a resounding success, despite the lack of public involvement due to Covid restrictions. Nets were successfully erected on all 9 days, which in itself is unusual with the October weather and an impressive 1200+ birds were ringed by the group, 963 on the outer head and 251 at Bempton Cliffs RSPB. A sterling effort by all involved!
  We experienced our best autumn season for catching Meadow Pipits aided by the use of mp3. lures, mainly at South Landing and Ocean View. Virtually all birds ringed were between the 31st. August and 22nd. September when nets were deployed on 16 occasions. The total ringed on the outer head was 220, another highest total since the inception of the bird observatory.
  Our Redwing totals (259) again surpassed any previous year. October, as always, was the peak month for this species, returning our best catches on the 13th/14th, when an unprecedented 71 and 51 birds respectively were caught and ringed.

  The top 5 species ringed east of the dykes during 2020 were all migrants or partial migrants, namely: Starling (613), Blackbird (577), Goldcrest (278), Redwing (259) and Tree Sparrow (235). Meadow Pipit came a close sixth! As was the case last year, the ringing of migrant warblers has also continued to see increase. 588 migrant warblers ringed surpassed last year’s highest ever total at Flamborough by a margin of almost 150 birds. We achieved the highest totals ever for six species of warbler; Reed Warbler (17), Lesser Whitethroat (27), Whitethroat (67), Blackcap (181), Yellow-browed Warbler (20) and Willow Warbler (123). The Willow Warbler total is particularly gratifying as it is a species that seems to turn up in ever-decreasing numbers – may 2021 continue this upward trend!

  We had some 16 registered ringers and trainees active at various times during the year in addition to a few visiting ringers. My thanks to the following for keeping the Observatory ringing group going: Dave Aitken, Paul & Jenny Butterworth, Tony Corscadden, Ana Cowie, Andy Hood, Jo Hood, Andy Jayes, Jamie Johnson, Jarred Johnson, Imogen Lloyd, Lucas Mander, Ian Marshall, Elliot Morley and Josh Saunders. In the twelve-month period, in addition to the garden ringing, we completed 75 different ringing sessions at our main headland ringing sites; South Landing, Holmes Gut, Thornwick Bay and Old Fall, which was a considerable achievement considering the ringing year comprised less than 9 months.

  The three best days’ ringing totals on the outer head were 145 (28/9), 166 (13/10) and 216 (14/10), the latter two achieved during the MigWeek (October 10th – 18th).
  Ringing highlights of 2020, apart from species already mentioned above would include Wryneck (the 6th one to be ringed on Flamborough Head, but the first one for over 30 years!), Tree Pipit and Wood Warbler (the 16th for Flamborough) for the second year running after a gap of almost 20 years. The aforementioned three species all caught at South Landing. The number of Goldfinch (215) continues its recent increase, again the highest year total since the Observatory was founded, and Lesser Redpoll (118) was another vast improvement on last year and indeed another record-breaking total for the FBO.
  Our objective, as always, in 2021 is to maintain our recent year on year increase in number of birds ringed in addition to commencing our CES study at Thornwick Bay.

  We are not a fully manned Observatory ringing station, but where possible, visiting licenced ringers can be hosted at our headland ringing sites.
  
  If you would like to experience ringing on the headland then, in the first instance, contact the ringer-in-charge: Jim Morgan jimmygpz@hotmail.com or 07951 075045

  Bird ringing to the west of the Dykes was carried out at Bempton and Buckton.
  In 2020, ringing activities at Bempton Cliffs were mainly concentrated around the autumn months of August through to early November, with the exception of the Nest Record Scheme monitoring project. Despite missing the entire spring migration period due to the first national lockdown, a record number of birds were captured at this site, surpassing last year’s total. A total of 1132 new birds of 39 species were ringed from 26 ringing sessions, with an additional 303 pulli of 5 species.

  The top five full grown species ringed were Tree Sparrow 368, Goldfinch 126, Goldcrest 88, Linnet 74 and Blackbird 59. The fourth year of a Tree Sparrow nest record scheme project was successfully completed which saw 282 nestlings ringed from 40 nest boxes.

  There were several large catch days all concentrated in the month of August, with 103 new birds on 7th, 112 on 15th and 102 on 31st August. Several notable highlights occurred during the autumn period; two Whinchat on 20 August were the first to be ringed here, as was a Red-breasted Flycatcher on 17 September. On 10 October, a Blythi type Lesser Whitethroat was caught and later confirmed by DNA analysis as Siberian thanks to the good folk at Aberdeen University, it was then found wintering in a garden in York after being reported in January 2021. A Goldcrest on 14 October sporting a Norwegian was the first foreign control for this site, followed by a control Robin on 16 October which was originally ringed on Shetland two days prior. A tristis type Siberian Chiffchaff was also trapped on 16 October. A total of 8 Yellow-browed Warblers were caught between 17 September and 1 October marking another good autumn for this species on this stretch of the East Coast.

  All ringing sessions at Bempton Cliffs were led by David Aitken with support from Will Scott, Poppy Rummery, Harriet Day, Ana Cowie, Geoff Carr, Julia Wildi, Andy Jayes, Imogen Lloyd and Jamie Johnson.
  There was no ringing at Buckton until the Covid lockdown was lifted in late summer so no pulli ringing was undertaken. A total of 884 new birds were caught and ringed on 21 days between 13th June – 4th November. The majority of the ringing took place during good migrant arrival periods and accounted for excellent totals of 118 Robin, 113 Redwing, 101 Goldcrest, 7 Yellow-browed Warblers, 2 Dusky Warblers and single Icterine Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler and Black Redstart.

  The Dusky Warblers were the standout highlight, being the first ever ringed at Buckton, the first one was only present for a day but the second was present from 15th to 28th October and had increased its weight by 3g when retrapped on the 23rd.

  Ringing at Buckton was undertaken by Mark Thomas, Ed Green and Richard Hearn.
  Flamborough Bird Observatory would like to thank the landowners on whose property the ringers set their nets; The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Bourne Leisure at Thornwick Bay Camp, Flamborough Head Golf Club and The East Riding of Yorkshire Council and the RSPB Bempton Cliffs. We would also like to thank individuals who gave donations during the ringing and migration week, with which we were able to buy some new equipment. At Buckton thanks go to land owners Buckton Hall Farm and Angus Wielkopolski.

  
  Flamborough Headland Ringing Totals for 2020

  Species	East of Dykes	Bempton	Buckton	Grand Total
  Sparrowhawk	6		2	8
  Kestrel	12			12
  Moorhen	4			4
  Woodcock	2			2
  Herring Gull	2			2
  Kittiwake	19			19
  Guillemot	1			1
  Stock Dove	12	2		14
  Woodpigeon	13		1	14
  Collared Dove	5			5
  Barn Owl	17	3		20
  Tawny Owl	2			2
  Kingfisher	1			1
  Wryneck	1			1
  Great Spotted Woodpecker	13	1		14
  Sand Martin	1			1
  Swallow	18	5		23
  Tree Pipit	1			1
  Meadow Pipit	220	24	45	289
  Rock Pipit	5			5
  Yellow Wagtail		1		1
  Grey Wagtail	4	1		5
  Pied Wagtail		5		5
  Wren	136	40	33	209
  Dunnock	151	49	34	234
  Robin	181	31	118	330
  Redstart	3	1	2	6
  Black Redstart			1	1
  Whinchat		2		2
  Stonechat		3	2	5
  Wheatear	4			4
  Ring Ouzel	1			1
  Blackbird	577	59	71	707
  Fieldfare	7	1	3	11
  Song Thrush	76	10	26	112
  Redwing	259	37	113	409
  Grasshopper Warbler	1		1	2
  Sedge Warbler	12	5	1	18
  Reed Warbler	17	4	1	22
  Icterine Warbler			1	1
  Lesser Whitethroat	27	4	6	37
  Whitethroat	67	28	12	107
  Garden Warbler	18		5	23
  Blackcap	181	32	39	252
  Yellow-browed Warbler	20	8	7	35
  Dusky Warbler			2	2
  Wood Warbler	1			1
  Chiffchaff	122	15	20	157
  Willow Warbler	123	30	9	162
  Goldcrest	278	88	102	468
  Spotted Flycatcher	2	1		3
  Red-breasted Flycatcher		1		1
  Pied Flycatcher	8	3	2	13
  Long-tailed Tit	69		24	93
  Coal Tit	40	1	2	43
  Blue Tit	239	22	29	290
  Great Tit	113	13	16	142
  Treecreeper	16			16
  Magpie	6			6
  Jackdaw	8			8
  Rook	2			2
  Starling	613		1	614
  House Sparrow	64		5	69
  Tree Sparrow	235	650	41	926
  Chaffinch	63	32	15	110
  Brambling	7	6	14	27
  Greenfinch	33	4	1	38
  Goldfinch	215	126	15	356
  Siskin	6		1	7
  Linnet	30	74	20	124
  Common Redpoll			2	2
  Lesser Redpoll	118	4	4	126
  Crossbill	1			1
  Bullfinch	51			51
  Yellowhammer	45	2	9	56
  Reed Bunting	21	9	33	63
  Total	4626	1437	891	6954
  Species total	67	42	44	76

• 27/07/2021

  Our ninth CES session at Thornwick saw a mild morning, with periods of sunshine and a gentle breeze.

  A steady start, followed by a few very quiet net rounds was followed by a flurry of activity! We caught a mixed flock of Long-tailed tits, Blue tits, Willow Warblers and a Lesser Whitethroat.

  It was rewarding to ring 4 juvenile Reed Warblers, most likely out of nests at the nearby Thornwick pools.

  A total of 33 birds of 14 species caught, of which 23 were new birds and 10 re-traps of birds previously ringed. Re-traps provide valuable data on longevity of adults, and it is always nice to see birds return to their breeding grounds after surviving migration.

  Only 4 of the birds caught were adults with all the rest being juveniles fledged this year. Pictured are a juvenile Blackcap and a juvenile Chiffchaff, showing the duller and fluffier, looser textured feathers of young birds compared to adults. 

  FULL TOTALS CAN BE FOUND ON TREKTELLEN

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• 03/08/2021

  Our first full session at South Landing since May saw us put up 7 nets at 5.15am, the early morning drizzle had luckily stopped by then, and the morning was still and overcast.

  We had nets up till 10.45am by which time it was warm and sunny, with a steady catch every net round. 

  We had a successful morning catching 65 birds of which 57 were new.

  Of the 20 species caught it was really rewarding to catch 13 juvenile Common Whitethroat, as well as 2 juvenile Great spotted woodpeckers. 

  A number of the warblers we caught were adults who’d already began their post breeding moults, this gave the trainees a good opportunity to practise ‘scoring’ the individual flight feathers for the stage of moult, just one of the many pieces of data collected by the ringers and collated by the British Trust for Ornithology. 

  A total of 20 different species were ringed in the session. 

  FULL TOTALS CAN BE FOUND IN TREKTELLEN

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• 20/07/21

  Our eighth CES session today caught 28 new birds (and 2 retraps) and was dominated by warblers, making up 64% of the catch, and though most were juveniles we were still able to compare some adult with juvenile plumages.
  

  Photo 1 shows two lesser whitethroats: the iris of the adult on the left is hazel and shows a (just visible in the photo) whitish crescent above the pupil whilst the iris of the juvenile on the right is uniform dark grey.

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  Adult lesser whitethroats complete their full annual moult after breeding and before migrating back to Africa and so are very worn at this time of year, recently fledged juveniles have fresh plumage as shown by the comparison of the two tails in photo 2.

  
  Adult sedge warblers complete their full annual moult on their African wintering grounds and so are quite worn by July compared to fresher juveniles. Juveniles can also by told by the dark brown speckling on the breast which forms a ‘gorget’ (see photo 3) whilst adults have an unstreaked breast.

  FULL TOTALS CAN BE FOUND ON TREKTELLEN
• 13/06/21

  Sunday 13 June was our 4th of 12 Constant Effort Site (CES) sessions run by Ana Cowie and Tony Corscadden and assisted by Sophie Bennet and Saskia Wischnewski, RSPB seabird scientists. 7 new birds were caught: 1 bullfinch, 1 chiffchaff, 1 reed bunting, 1 sedge warbler, 2 whitethroat and 1 yellowhammer plus 7 retraps: 1 sedge warbler, 2 whitethroat, 3 willow warbler and 1 wren. The grand total of 14 birds was low but weather affected by the mostly hot, sunny and windless conditions. Subsequent sessions will be busier as fledglings become active.

  FULL TOTALS CAN BE FOUND ON TREKTELLEN

  
  The bird featured is a female reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) age code 5 i.e. 2nd calendar year. In autumn 2020 it performed a typical post-juvenile moult of body feathers, lesser, median and all greater coverts and, normally, all tail feathers, though this bird has retained its central pair. The adult type denser, glossier, darker coloured greater coverts and tertials contrast with the paler and worn juvenile flight feathers, primary coverts and alula feathers.

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• 06/06/2021

  An overall fairly quiet morning at Thornwick, with a slightly busier start and finish to the session contradicting a comparative lull mid-morning, though morale was boosted by a greasy breakfast sandwich and a bit of sunshine at the midway point! Despite a lot of retraps, we had a good variety of birds for the morning, with a couple of new Lesser Whitethroat and single Reed Warbler the highlights. A recently fledged Dunnock also provided us with an element of cuteness to take away. 

  FULL TOTALS CAN BE FOUND ON TREKTELLEN

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• 23/05/2021

  Today we had a successful second CES (Constant Effort Site) ringing session at Thornwick. When we arrived the weather conditions were ideal with an overcast sky and no wind which make the nets less visible to birds. We got our 9 standard nets up in a quick 30 minutes so had time for a quick tea and biscuit break. It was a steady session with a larger than average number of whitethroats (6) and lesser whitethroats (3) caught. 

  There were a nice variety of birds with 14 species caught in total (26 newly ringed and 9 retraps). 

  We are looking forward to finding out valuable trend information on abundance of adults and juveniles, productivity and also adult survival rates through this national scheme. 

  sEE FULL TOTALS ON TREKTELLEN

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• 11/05/2021

  The change in wind direction and the arrival of many migrants over previous days was an optimistic sign for our ringing session at South Landing. We arrived on site at 05.30 am, having had a quick stop to admire the Hoopoe on the nearby bowling green, a beautiful sunny morning with barely any wind and plenty of birdsong greeted us.

  
  We initially erected 7 nets, later adding another 2, the first net round delivered on the migrant front with 2 Lesser Whitethroats, one of which was a returning bird having been ringed as a juvenile at Flamborough last year. Also in the first round was a lovely Sedge Warbler, the first time we’ve caught one in spring at this site. Throughout the session we had a steady stream of Warblers, in fact 6 different species were caught, including a Garden Warbler and 7 Blackcaps.

  
  It was rewarding to re-catch 5 Warblers previously ringed at Flamborough, its nice to know they have survived their migration and made it back to raise another generation. We had another special bird – a Reed Warbler, another first spring catch at this site.
  Alongside our migrants we also caught some resident birds showing brood patches, evidence they are breeding locally, including Blackbirds, Dunnocks, a Coal Tit, Bullfinch and Song Thrush.
  

  A lovely spring session lasting 6 hours in which we caught 35 birds of 17 species.

  See full totals on trektellen

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• 2nd May 2021

  This year the FBO ringing team have embarked on an exciting new trial. We have established a Constant Effort Site at Thornwick, which is a scheme run by the British Trust of Ornithology, identifying changes in catch sizes across a network of standardised mist nets. This enables us to better monitor changes in the abundance and breeding success of common passerines. 

  At Thornwick, licensed ringers will erect a series of mist nets in the same positions, for the same amount of time, during 12 visits evenly spaced between 1 May and 31 August. 

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  This morning was the first session of the scheme and we couldn’t have asked for a better start… It was a cold and frosty morning to begin with, with small amounts of rain falling. We started with a few chiffchaffs, whitethroats, lesser whitethroats and more trickling through but the star bird came a bit later and was completely unexpected. As we approached one of the nets, all of us saw a blackbird sitting calmly, however as we got closer some white peaked through and to our amazement, it was a stunning ring ouzel! Two of the ringers present had never seen one in the hand before so this was a real treat. 

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  We ended the session with 25 newly ringed birds, 13 recaptures and 17 species in total.

  See full totals on trektellen

  We will be keeping this blog up to date with all of FBO’s ringing activities so please check it regularly to find out more about what we do and why! 

• 29/11/2020

  A still and overcast morning with lots of Blackbirds calling from the hedges saw us open 9 nets, hopeful for the catch ahead.

  We put up a net in a new ride only recently cut, as we were putting up the nets we flushed at least 4 Woodcock from the scrub, the last few days have seen a noticeable arrival of these beautiful birds.

  The first net round saw the new ride deliver a wonderful treat- a Woodcock, these medium sized waders have an amazing cryptic plumage designed to help camouflage them in their woodland habitat. They are generally a secretive bird, often only seen at dusk or dawn when they feed in woodland floors or damp fields. In spring males can sometimes be seen giving display flights, ‘roding’ and making their distinctive croaking call. 

  The Woodcock was the definite highlight of the session, alongside 15 Blackbirds, 3 gorgeous male Bullfinch and a Treecreeper. 

  Full totals on trektellen

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• 22/11/20

  This morning we had the recently rare occurrence of 3 sites being ringed at simultaneously at Flamborough. One ringer was at their private site on the Headland, 2 ringers were at Holmes Gut and 2 at South Landing (all under current BTO guidance). It was a cold and slow start with some birds trickling through, but a great perk of getting up so early is seeing the sunrise! At South Landing we caught more retraps than birds without rings which is still valuable information. The highlights for us were a lesser redpoll, a chiffchaff and 2 tree sparrows. 

  Whilst we were doing our net rounds, we were dismayed to see the amount of litter that had been left at South Landing, including items such as plastic visors. Please remember to always take your rubbish home with you or dispose of it appropriately. Litter can have a detrimental impact to our wildlife which more and more people are appreciating at the moment during the current lockdown. 

  Full totals on trektellen

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• 19/11/20

  With limited ringing opportunities due to the unsettled weather, we took a lockdown friendly walk around South Dykes. As the wind dropped and the afternoon sun came out we saw plenty of birds including flocks of mixed titmice, a handful of foraging Goldcrest and at least 60 Chaffinch feeding along the field margins with a few Greenfinch and Yellowhammer mixed in.

  
  The highlight however was seeing a male Nuthatch that we had originally ringed on the 20th March 2019, we were able to read the ring from numerous photos taken of the bird.  We caught both a male and female Nuthatch on the 20th March 2019. They were sexed by colour of the flanks and under tail coverts, which are a brighter rufous-red and well demarcated from the whitish or buff lower throat, belly and breast in the males. 

  
  Both birds were aged as 2nd year birds (born in 2018), based on contrast in the median and greater covert feathers. These 2 birds were the first Nuthatches to be ringed in the observatory recording area, up until this point they were a very scare visitor to the headland. A pair were initially seen in the South Dykes area from October 2017, with nesting recorded the following year and in June 2019 3 birds were recorded in the same area. 

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• 04/11/2020

  A last session before lockdown saw us out on a sunny and crisp morning, with skeins of Pink-footed geese flying overhead.

  We had a very steady morning and caught 10 new birds alongside 8 retraps.  We were lucky enough to catch 2 beautiful Grey Wagtails, whilst we often see Grey Wagtails on the beaches at South landing and Danes dyke we rarely catch them, they also pass over the headland at this time of year on migration. We also caught a juvenile male Sparrowhawk and 2 Goldcrests. 

  Hopefully we will be able to get back out ringing soon.

  Full totals can be found on trektellen

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• 27/10/20

  A sunny start soon gave way to an overcast and breezy morning. We put up 7 nets, hopeful as Brambling and Siskin were flying over and calling. Sadly no Brambling or Siskin to be caught today or any of the lovely flock of 30 Fieldfare that flew over us. We had a very quiet morning with 21 birds caught however we did catch a nice mix of birds including 5 Goldcrests and a Chiffchaff, most likely migrants passing through. We also caught 4 Tree Sparrows, a species we are privileged to have thriving on the headland given there are some counties were it is in effect extinct. The gentle pace gave us chance to photograph some of the feather characteristics we look for when ageing birds. 

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  SEE FULL TOTALS ON TREKTELLEN

• 19/10/20

  Bird ringing brings joy and excitement and for me ,this weekend, is exactly what it did at Flamborough Bird Observatory as well as Bempton cliffs. Two fantastic places where I have met incredible, knowledgeable people with the same passion as me. They dedicate their time and hard work to Flamborough Bird Observatory. 

  I was fortunate to be a part of this the last couple of days. I was invited over to do some ringing, which is brilliant as I am keen to ring other birds and meet people with the same passion as me. 

  Back home I am part of a ringing group called Sorby Brecks based in Sheffield where I am a trainee, working towards my c license.  So meeting other ringers and new birds is a perfect opportunity, which Flamborough Bird Observatory offers especially over migration week. You never know what might turn up. The early mornings paid off on my last day of ringing at Flamborough, we happened to extract two goldcrests, one wearing a Norwegian ring and the other wearing a ring from Finland. For me that’s what ringing is all about. 

  However all of Flamborough head through to Bempton gives you a good opportunity of seeing some stunning birds. My highlight of this weekend was seeing the red flanked bluetail, wow it really is amazing, such rarity’s turning up in Flamborough. So thank you for my extraordinary weekend with you all and how welcome you made me feel. 

  Harriet Day

  Thank you Jo Hood, Jim Morgan, Dave Aitken & Imogen Lloyd

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• Migweek

  Hello everyone and a great big thanks to all of the participants who took part in our most successful Ringing & Migration Week (Migweek) to date: Dave Aitken, Paul & Jenny Butterworth, Tony Corscadden, Ana Cowie, Harriett Day, Andy Hood, Jo Hood, Andy Jayes, Jamie Johnson, Jarred Johnson (no relation), Imogen Lloyd, Lucas Mander, Ian Marshall, Poppy Rummery and Josh Saunders.  Thanks also to Tony Hood for being very helpful and talking to the public!
  

  A grand total of 1214 new birds of 38 species were ringed, from 6 different ringing sites on the headland. We caught no rare birds but we did have a few highlights; a couple of Sparrowhawks, Woodcock, Ring Ouzel, 2 ‘tristis’ Chiffchaffs,  5 Fieldfare and pride of place must go to the Norwegian-ringed Goldcrest trapped at Bempton.

  The greatest achievement must surely be the Redwing total of 220 birds, this has more than doubled the existing FBO annual record! ….. and we still have another few weeks of autumn remaining. Many thanks to all involved, now we can await some great recoveries.

  Jim Morgan – Flamborough Bird Observatory Ringer In Chief

  
  p.s. a ‘warming-down session on Monday at South Landing produced 2 foreign-ringed Goldcrest from Norway and Finland!

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  View full totals for flamborough

  view full totals for bempton

• 15/10/20

  Another day of north easterlies forecast and I was optimistic about the session ahead. The quagmire-like conditions created by the resident cattle at Holmes Gut made setting up a little bit more demanding, but our first round delivered a good number of birds; mainly consisting of early morning thrushes which were pretty abundant around the site. The morning continued steadily as a slight rain-front threatened to halt our progress. The rain came and went after about fifteen minutes, and I wondered if this could have brought in something interesting when Jim mentioned that it may have done so. There I was becoming excited over the possibility of a fieldfare, or even better, ring ouzel, when it was revealed as something (in my opinion) that is almost impossible to top; a stunning Woodcock! An absolute cryptic beauty, my first time seeing one in the hand, and another memorable Migweek moment! 

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  FULL TOTALS ON TREKTELLEN

• Ringing Report 2019

  As from the 1^st January 2019 all of the bird ringing operating throughout the historical area east of the Dykes and also at Bempton is carried out by The Flamborough Bird Observatory (FBO) ringing group.  Succeeding the now defunct East Yorkshire Ringing Group.

  2019 was another year dominated by westerlies, denying us of even a modest period of easterlies in which to hope for numbers of grounded migrants.  We had some 15 registered ringers and trainees active at various times during the year in addition to a few visiting ringers. In the twelve month period there were 105 different ringing sessions during 82 days of ringing activity at our main headland ringing sites. We also benefited from regular trapping and ringing in Paul and Jenny Butterworth’s  garden and at Andy Hood’s residence, Ocean View, where the two sites amassed over 30% of the total birds ringed.  The importance of South Landing as our prime ringing and demonstration site was again in evidence, accounting for almost 40% of all birds ringed.

  Another record breaking year on the Outer Head !   

  3348 birds of 65 species which has comfortably passed last year’s record breaking Flamborough year of  2938 birds of 61 species.  We have now logged this as the 6^th year in succession to record a year on year increase in ringing totals.  New additions to the species list were; Nuthatch, two birds were caught and ringed in South Dykes in March after taking up residency for several months and Cetti’s Warbler on 22nd April and 27th September.  It will be interesting to see whether Nuthatch establishes itself in the wooded areas and whether further sightings of this species are of ringed birds. 

  The top 5 species ringed east of the dykes during 2018 were:   Starling 464, Goldcrest 268, Blackbird 232, Blue Tit 224 and Robin 175.  The ringing of migrant warblers has also continued to see increase.   434 migrant warblers ringed surpassed last year’s highest ever total at Flamborough by a margin of well over 100 birds. Lesser Whitethroat (20), Whitethroat (54) and Willow Warbler (38) maintained their healthy totals of 2018 and the Icterine and Wood Warblers were the first to be ringed since the inception of the Bird Observatory in 2002.  The Blackcap (150) and Chiffchaff (136) totals were both approximately twice their previous highest year totals!

  The two most productive months were as usual September and October together accounting for 47% of all new birds ringed, nets being set on 15 days during each month.  The three best days’ ringing totals of 177, 158 and 146 were all achieved during the Ringing and Migration Week (October 12^th – 20^th) held in conjunction with our friends at Filey Bird Observatory. That week returned 728 birds ringed at Flamborough of 33 species, with birds caught and ringed on all 9 days, a sterling effort from all concerned, despite not having the best of weather.  

  Ringing highlights of 2019, apart from the two new species already mentioned above would include Tree Pipit, the Icterine Warbler (the 20^th to be ringed at Flamborough and the first since 1997), a Wood Warbler (the 15^th for Flamborough and the first this century) and 5 Yellow-browed Warbler (somewhat disappointing after the previous two years).   The number of Goldfinch (112) ringed was again the highest year total since the Observatory was founded, whereas Lesser Redpoll were noticeable by their absence – a meagre 4 individuals caught during the whole of the autumn.   

  Bird ringing to the west of the Dykes was carried out at Bempton and Buckton.

  2019 marked the first full calendar year of ringing activities at Bempton Cliffs, which included the running of a whoosh net in a Bempton village garden. Between the two sites a combined total of 1490 new birds of 44 species were ringed from 51 ringing sessions during the 12-month period. 

  The top five species ringed were Tree Sparrow 519, Starling 100, Goldcrest 72, Wren 65, and Robin 58. A Tree Sparrow nest record scheme project was continued for a third consecutive year where a remarkable 296 nestlings were ringed from nest boxes. Furthermore, 223 full grown birds were also ringed over the course of the year.  Star birds were Pallas’s Warbler,  Siberian, tristis race of Chiffchaff, Barred Warbler and a Yellow-browed Warbler.

  In addition to the above mentioned, all ringing efforts for the Flamborough Bird observatory were supported by David Aitken, Phil Bone, Tony Corscadden, Ana Cowie, Jacob Davies, Jo Hood, Imogen Lloyd, Lucas Mander, Julia Wildi, Ian Marshall, Jim Morgan, John McEachen, Steve Westerberg, Tina Wiffen, Elliot Morley, Josh Saunders, Saskia Wischnewski, Sara Miller, Andy Jayes, Harriet Day, Michael Babcock and Will Scott.

  At Buckton during 2019 a total of 1102 new birds were ringed by Mark Thomas, Ed Green, Dave Aitken and Richard Hearn. This represents the third highest total in the last 19 years. Highest species totals were Tree sparrow (147), Redwing (142), Yellowhammer (77), Robin (70) and Reed Bunting (67). Good numbers of buntings were attracted to seed and caught in the early part of the winter but following this, spring migration was rather disappointing. The breeding season was good with juvenile Kestrels, Barn Owls, Stock Doves, Swallows and Tree Sparrows all ringed. Autumn migration never really peaked although combined thrush numbers were excellent including three Ring Ouzel. Two Yellow-browed Warblers were caught along with four Siberian Lesser Whitethroats – all confirmed by DNA analysis.

  There have been 27 reported movements of birds to or from Flamborough Head during 2019.   The highlights being;  Goldcrest from Flamborough to Norway and from Buckton to The Netherlands and Lesser Whitethroat from Belgium to Flamborough and from Buckton to Belgium.

  Flamborough Headland Ringing Totals

  Species	East of Dykes	Bempton	Buckton	Grand Total
  Sparrowhawk	3	1	4	8
  Kestrel	6		8	14
  Water Rail			1	1
  Moorhen	2			2
  Woodcock	1		1	2
  Herring Gull	1			1
  Kittiwake	60	1		61
  Stock Dove	11	3	2	16
  Woodpigeon	26	5	1	32
  Collared Dove	5	2		7
  Barn Owl	20	2	6	28
  Tawny Owl	2			2
  Great Spotted Woodpecker	3	3	2	8
  Sand Martin	1			1
  Swallow	15	4	44	63
  Tree Pipit	1		1	2
  Meadow Pipit	90		50	140
  Rock Pipit	16			16
  Pied Wagtail		3		3
  Wren	113	64	33	210
  Dunnock	155	52	33	240
  Robin	179	56	70	305
  Redstart	6	1	2	9
  Whinchat			2	2
  Stonechat	2	3	2	7
  Wheatear	3			3
  Ring Ouzel	2		3	5
  Blackbird	246	67	48	361
  Fieldfare	2			2
  Song Thrush	51	16	53	120
  Redwing	92	49	142	283
  Mistle Thrush			1	1
  Cetti’s Warbler	2			2
  Grasshopper Warbler			1	1
  Sedge Warbler	16	3	10	29
  Reed Warbler	9	1	6	16
  Icterine Warbler	1			1
  Barred Warbler		1		1
  Lesser Whitethroat	20	7	11	38
  Whitethroat	54	42	50	146
  Garden Warbler	8		3	11
  Blackcap	150	45	40	235
  Pallas’s Warbler		1		1
  Yellow-browed Warbler	5	1	2	8
  Wood Warbler	1			1
  Chiffchaff	136	42	25	203
  Willow Warbler	40	36	11	87
  Goldcrest	269	71	36	376
  Spotted Flycatcher			1	1
  Pied Flycatcher	2	3	1	6
  Firecrest	3			3
  Long-tailed Tit	75	24	10	109
  Coal Tit	28	1		29
  Blue Tit	230	28	26	284
  Great Tit	122	7	4	133
  Nuthatch	2			2
  Treecreeper	10	2	1	13
  Magpie	2			2
  Jackdaw	4			4
  Rook	5			5
  Carrion Crow	2			2
  Starling	476	100		576
  House Sparrow	34	32		66
  Tree Sparrow	142	504	147	793
  Chaffinch	46	27	11	84
  Brambling	5	1	5	11
  Greenfinch	33	34	1	68
  Goldfinch	112	58	18	188
  Linnet	102	21	24	147
  Lesser Redpoll	4			4
  Bullfinch	39		1	40
  Yellowhammer	23	7	77	107
  Reed Bunting	22	11	67	100
  Corn Bunting			4	4
  Total	3348	1442	1102	5892
  Species total	65	44	49	74

• 04/10/20

  Looking at the weather forecast the night before, we weren’t sure whether it would be worth ringing in the morning. It was forecast to be a little gusty with occasional showers, but we decided to give it a go… you never know. We arrived at 6am and put up 7 nets at South Landing. After doing an initial net round, we knew we had made the right call and it was going to be a good day. Interestingly there was a large movement of robins with a total of 41 being caught throughout the morning. Other highlights were 5 yellow browed warblers and a lovely redstart. We also had a bonus bird at the end which was an adult siskin which we don’t often catch. We ended the session on 116 birds (96 new and 20 retraps). The lesson of the morning being sometimes the weather forecast is wrong! 

  Full totals can be found on trektellen

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• 20/09/2020

  An overcast and initially breezy day at South Landing which got off to a slow start with only a handful of birds in the first net round. A spell of showers forced the nets to be closed for a time. As the weather improved, flocks of swallows were flying around the site. Using a swallow tape lure caught us 2 swallows and interestingly 5 goldfinch. The next round saw another 13 goldfinches seemingly attracted by the swallow song being played. Another swallow and a further 6 goldfinches were caught, along with 3 chaffinch (an uncommon bird in our nets).

  Full totals can be found on trektellen

  Species	Ringed	Retrapped
  Goldfinch	25
  Wren	2	4
  Goldcrest	1
  Long tailed tit	2
  Blackcap	2
  Blue tit	1	1
  Robin		2
  Treecreeper		1
  Chiffchaff	3
  Swallow	3
  Chaffinch	3
  Tree sparrow	1	1
  Blackbird		1
  Great tit		1
  Bullfinch		1

• 30/08/2020

  It was a slow start to our ringing session at South Landing, Flamborough. We put up 7 nets and only had a trickle of birds coming through during the morning. It was looking like it would be a slow and an uneventful session. As we sat outside to have some breakfast we heard a dog barking close to the nets. I decided to go and check it out in case anyone had wondered near our net lanes and to ensure any birds caught were safe. As I approached one of the mist nets, it suddenly dawned on me that something very unusual had been caught. I was extremely excited to see a wryneck (Jynx torquilla), which are small brown cryptic birds related to woodpeckers. 

  

  These birds get their name from their ability to turn their heads almost 180 degrees. When disturbed, they use this snake-like head twisting to warn off predators. A wryneck has not been ringed in Flamborough since 1991 (28 years ago) and this was the 6^th ever record ringed for the Observatory so a fantastic record. 

  full totals can be found on trektellen