Amazing stories
We all know that some of the birds we see every day have exciting
lives - think of the Swallows we see round our houses in the summer
that spend their winters in South Africa. But some of our commonest
birds also have tales to tell.
These four birds are some of the most notable stories, and you
may have been ringed as one yourself.
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Robin |
V43516 |
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Robins are a familiar garden bird to most people,
but did you know they are also long-distance migrants? The
summary map here shows how birds move through Europe in the
autumn, with Scandinavian visitors arriving here, whilst some
carry on to France and beyond.
V43516 was a young bird when it was ringed on migration at
Signilskär, a small island in the Baltic Sea. It was
then caught again by ringers just six
days later at Spurn Bird Observatory, Yorkshire,
having travelled 860 miles!
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Swallow |
GA42239 |
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The first Swallow of the year really is a sign
that spring is here. It is only through ringing that we know
about the migrations of these familiar birds, and it wasn't
too long ago people assumed they spent their winters at the
bottom of ponds or on the moon! The map above shows the main
migration route used by birds to navigate the big barriers
to migration, including the vast Sahara desert.
GA42239 was actually ringed on its wintering grounds, at
Bloemfontein University in South
Africa. This was on 5 April 2002, when the
first birds will already have been back in Britain. This bird,
though, was recaught at a breeding site in Thetford, Norfolk,
in mid-June, 6,000 miles
distant.
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Manx Shearwater |
2057768 |
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| 'Manxies' normally spend their
winters off the coast of South America, making a huge circuit
of the Atlantic every year (as in the map above). These amazing
birds are also the oldest birds we know of from ringing, with
one Welsh bird caught back at its burrow 51
years after being ringed!
2057768 was originally ringed as a chick in its burrow on
Skokholm Island, Wales, in 1960. It was then sadly found dead
on a beach in Venus Bay, Australia, in November 1961, 14,500
miles away. This is the furthest distance
a BTO-ringed bird has ever travelled!
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Goldcrest |
AH4076 |
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Considering Goldcrests are the smallest birds
in Europe (weighing the same as five Smarties!), their migrations
are truly amazing. Birds will leave Scandinavia weighing 6g
and arrive in the UK weighing as little as 4.5g - a loss of
a quarter of their bodyweight overnight!
AH4076 had probably fledged a nest somewhere in Norway, and
would have been on migration when it was ringed, on 14 October
2005. We know this because the very next
day it was caught again by ringers at Flamborough
Bird Observatory in Yorkshire. Though this overnight journey
of 380 miles
seems incredible, vast numbers of Goldcrest will be doing
this every autumn. |
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