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!!
