Colour Ringing

[ewobwomco]

As I am fairly new to birding I was pleased when I sighted my first colour ringed Black-tailed Godwit, being keen, I duly tried to do an online report - the web page failed. Not to be disheartened I sent off a report to one of the team, e-mail address supplied on web site, absolutely no response. So when I saw that at least six birds of a flock of 140+ BTG had colour rings I was somewhat reluctant to spend time recording them. This leads to my question,
are the colour ringing projects just for those Universities/Groups who engage in the ringing and they don't need input from the birding community. What are other members experiences?

[MagpieMick]

This link should give you some idea as to where they were ringed ?

http://www.cr-birding.be/

Mick ...

[RoyW]

Other that satellite tracking (and similar schemes where the bird is fitted with a transmitter) all bird ringing/marking schemes tend to rely heavily on reports from birders/members of the public.

It may be that you haven't yet received any reply because the bird was ringed abroad and the ringer has yet to be traced (in some cases it can take several months before you hear about a birds history, but it is usually quicker).
It is probably worth trying to send your report again via the BTO website, just to make sure that the details have reached the correct people:
Euring Web Recoveries

As long as the details have not somehow ended up 'lost', and they have the correct contact details for you, you should eventually receive details of the history of any ringed birds that you report though (where and when it was ringed + any sightings in between).

[Adam Cheeseman]

Anyone can send in reports of sightings. The more data they receive the better. You can wait a long time for a response though, so don't be downbeat. I found a Herring Gull at Bedfont Lakes that had been orphaned, was ringed and released at Dungeness and mine was the first sighting of it since. Currently waiting on a reply about a Black-headed Gull.

Cheers,

Adam

[ewobwomco]

Thanks for the responses - I posted the details again and will persist, perhaps patience is not my best virtue. Also, I have resolvd to continue to collect data from any sightings.

Regards

ewobwomco