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.
