Category: Ringing

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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:

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.

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:

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.

2025 has been an excellent year for our ever-growing ringing team with new trainees joining us and two more ringers becoming licensed trainers.

This year we completed 272 ringing sessions across ten different sites. We took part in six projects :- RAS-Re-trapping adults for survival, CES-Constant Effort site, NRS-Nest record scheme, TSGP-Trans-Siberian genoscape project, Vector-Borne Radar project and the Darwin Tree of Life project, the whole team are immensely proud to be involved in these and look forward to participating again in 2026.

We re-established our site at the Thornwick Reedbed roost which provided us with the opportunity to catch hirundines, we caught a total of 734 birds at the roost of which 705 were newly ringed. The newly ringed highlights being:

We completed ten out of twelve CES (Constant Effort Site) sessions at Thornwick Bay which saw us catch a total of 284 birds of twenty one species with 181 being new birds.

Our annual Migweek event which sees the team running public ringing demos daily for nine days was a resounding success with us only cancelling one session due to high winds. Demos were held at South Landing and RSPB Bempton with a total of eleven public sessions. Over 450 members of the public attended sessions at South Landing.
Migweek also saw us enjoy a fabulous ‘ringers’ meal at the North Star to celebrate and honour our previous Ringer-in-chief Jim Morgan who was presented with a beautiful painting of Flamborough migrant birds.

Over the headland in 2025 we caught a total of 7180 birds with 5970 of these being new and 1210 retraps/controls-which included a French ringed Sedge Warbler caught at South Landing. This is just 92 new birds short of our record year in 2020 so a marvellous effort!

The highlights of newly ringed birds as follows:

We have already begun our site maintenance and preparation for the upcoming year, with work being carried out to expand the Thornwick roost site and an imminent session to clear rides and manage habitat at our Thornwick CES site.