Like many ringers we are excited by having our birds recovered elsewhere by other ringers: getting feedback on where they have gone and how long they have survived since we ringed / last retrapped them. The reports do not provide biometrics, so we cannot get an idea of condition. It is particularly interesting when those birds are recovered overseas. Naturally, the reverse is also true.
It is not something that we are lucky enough to get lots of reports of, so special when we do. Since 2013 we have had only two Chiffchaff recovered in foreign climes. They were: JAB143, ringed at Lower Moor Farm on the 27th July 2015, recovered 1,082 km and 80 days later on the 10th October 2015 at Laguna de Negrillas, Leon, Spain and NTR658, ringed at Bowerhill, Melksham on the 7th October 2021, recovered 1,601 km and 49 days later on the 25th November 2021 at Herdade dos Forninhos, Beja, Portugal.
Equally, we have had just two overseas recoveries of Reed Warbler ringed at one of our sites and recovered overseas. They were AFZ6828, ringed at Langford Lakes Nature Reserve on the 15th August 2022 and recovered 582 km and 13 days later at Etang de Mercanay, Larrey, France and AFZ6572, also ringed at Langford Lakes, on the 29th July 2022 and recovered 409 km and 380 days later at Noyant, Soulaire-et-Bourg, Maine-et-Loire, France.
On the 11th August 2023, at one of his farmland sites near Hilmarton, Jonny Cooper had a pretty decent session (when does he not have good sessions?). He caught and processed: Blue Tit 4(1); Great Tit 1; Wren 5; Dunnock 1; Robin 2; Reed Warbler 2; Sedge Warbler 2; Blackcap 1; Garden Warbler 1; Whitethroat 8; Lesser Whitethroat 3; Chiffchaff 14; Willow Warbler 5; Greenfinch 1; Goldfinch 2. Totals: 52 birds ringed from 15 species and 1 retrapped bird, making 53 birds processed from 15 species.
From that little group we have had three recovery reports: two for Chiffchaff and one for Reed Warbler. I am pretty sure that we haven’t ever had one session produce three recovery reports before. Of the three recoveries, two were overseas movements and one of the Chiffchaffs looks as though it did a reverse migration movement and spent the winter in the Midlands.
The possibly confused Chiffchaff, PRD121, was recaptured 69 km and 171 days later at Lower Moor Sewage Works (not to be confused with my Lower Moor Farm site) in Worcestershire on the 29th January 2024.
However, the stars of this report are Chiffchaff, PRD112, and Reed Warbler, BAC3964. The Chiffchaff was recovered 1519 km and 113 days later on the 2nd December 2023 at Quinta da Atalaia, Setubal, Portugal and the Reed Warbler was recovered 670 km and 18 days later at Chenal, Charente Maritime, France on the 29th August 2023. So, compared to what we have had in the past, this was a pretty special result. I am sure it would be old hat to the observatories and sites that are migration hot spots, but that doesn’t apply to our sites in north west Wiltshire.
Thanks to Google Earth for the base images.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 