Leg Rings ?

[Dogghound]

It cost's a little, but no more than most things, it is well worth it. If anyone is keen to learn more about birds get involved. You dont just learn about identifying them but aging, sexing and you learn loads about their biology such as breeding, migration etc. I have been doing it for quite a lot of years. Its not all about migration hot spots just as exciting visting the net in a inland forest you never know what might be waiting for you.

A couple from yesterday at a coastal site, the migrants were in good numbers.



Which attracted the attention of this stunning 1st summer female sparrowhawk.

[Morph]

The person who passed me the ring didn't know what type of bird it was his only comment was it was a pale Blackbird type bird.
Encouragement is the key word here, if you want feedback from the general public from rings when they're found, otherwise the whole scheme is usless.
I called up to the clients house over the weekend and I opened WAB on his PC to let him see your replies and his response was...
I only wanted to know what bird it was, where and when it was ringed. Sounds like a big waste of time to me, If I ever find another it'll go in the bin with the bird

Considering the small percentage of these rings that are found and reported I think the schemes should polish up there acts. Its all very well going out there ringing but then the data should be sorted and stored in more befitting way, it all sounds very Heath-Robinson to me.

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by Morph

The person who passed me the ring didn't know what type of bird it was his only comment was it was a pale Blackbird type bird.
Encouragement is the key word here, if you want feedback from the general public from rings when they're found, otherwise the whole scheme is usless.
I called up to the clients house over the weekend and I opened WAB on his PC to let him see your replies and his response was...
I only wanted to know what bird it was, where and when it was ringed. Sounds like a big waste of time to me, If I ever find another it'll go in the bin with the bird

Considering the small percentage of these rings that are found and reported I think the schemes should polish up there acts. Its all very well going out there ringing but then the data should be sorted and stored in more befitting way, it all sounds very Heath-Robinson to me.

Nice attitude to conservation that you and your friend have there Morph. Have you not read anything on this post? Its not as simple as that, most work is done by volunteers who may have a backlog of requests have a job, family and other commitments to attend to. Regarding it being useless most recoveries of ringed birds are made by ringers who recapture ringed birds in nets so its not useless. Although the general public do play a part in reporting dead/injured birds or birds with rings which can be seen.

[solus]

Originally Posted by Morph

The person who passed me the ring didn't know what type of bird it was his only comment was it was a pale Blackbird type bird.
Encouragement is the key word here, if you want feedback from the general public from rings when they're found, otherwise the whole scheme is usless.
I called up to the clients house over the weekend and I opened WAB on his PC to let him see your replies and his response was...
I only wanted to know what bird it was, where and when it was ringed. Sounds like a big waste of time to me, If I ever find another it'll go in the bin with the bird

Considering the small percentage of these rings that are found and reported I think the schemes should polish up there acts. Its all very well going out there ringing but then the data should be sorted and stored in more befitting way, it all sounds very Heath-Robinson to me.

If this was a metal BTO ring then you WILL be told the details of what species the bird was, its sex and age when ringed (if ascertainable at the time of ringing) as well as where and when it was trapped and ringed and how long the bird had survived after ringing and how far it had travelled (from ringing location to where it was found).

If you read back through the posts on here carefully you will see that Rossy was referring to a colour ring (a yellow plastic one in his case) which was found by itself by water and not attached to a bird's leg or neck. it is THAT sort of ring which is used (in conjunction with a BTO metal ring) in studies of a particular species and enables the researcher and others to recognise an individual bird by the combination of colour rings (small birds) and the colour ring with a code of letters and/or numbers which can be read easily with a telescope for larger birds, such as swans and geese, which may aslo be fitted with neck-collars. Colour/letter coded wing tags may also be encountered as on Red Kites and Eagles.

The point it, it is these colour rings which in isolation cannot be identified - they do need to be seen on the species under study. The metal BTO ring (which I am assuming is what you have) is uniquely numbered and as the BTO have records of which ringing station/individual ringer that ring was issued to and the ringers themselves will have written records of which bird that particular ring was fitted to - it will be identified.

However, as others have said, ringing is carried out by dedicated and highly trained volunteers - people who have full-time jobs, families and other commitments and who are unable to drop everything the second they receive a letter or e-mail about a recovered ring. Personally, I think you are being rather unreasonable and your attitude (and that of your client) is not helpful if you really want to learn more about "your" bird.