A clever ringer

[FUDGEY]

I got an email forwarded by a friend yesterday and it was from a ringer who thought of a clever way of recovering rings. He took a metal detector to Peregrines nest sites in the winter and although he said it could be a bit of work found plenty. He gave a list of all the recovered birds and I was surprised at some of the birds the Falcon had caught. Most surprisinglt to me were several Great and Blue Tit rings, i never thought a Peregrine would take such small birds. What surprised me even more was the 6 Dipper rings he found. It was a very interesting read.

[faz]

Originally Posted by FUDGEY

I got an email forwarded by a friend yesterday and it was from a ringer who thought of a clever way of recovering rings. He took a metal detector to Peregrines nest sites in the winter and although he said it could be a bit of work found plenty. He gave a list of all the recovered birds and I was surprised at some of the birds the Falcon had caught. Most surprisinglt to me were several Great and Blue Tit rings, i never thought a Peregrine would take such small birds. What surprised me even more was the 6 Dipper rings he found. It was a very interesting read.

sounds intresting where did you read this fudgey ?

[FUDGEY]

It was an email sent by Mark Lawrence mate.

[Dogghound]

Its a good idea although I would have thought that the overall success rate would be low unless there is a high ringing effort in the area. I presume they have been nesting in the location for several years? I have collected rings from barn owl and little owl nests in the past in very small numbers (possibly moreof a reflection of diet compared to peregrine). Unfortunately peregrines here nest on high vertical cliffs plus feed predominantly on seabirds and feral pigeons most of which are not rung. Never thought to use a metal detector though would be a good way to see if there is anything under all of the broken down pellets, debris etc in the nests.

[FUDGEY]

Yeah Dogghound I dont think it was easy. If I remember correctly it was an avearge of 300 pigeon rings to one of the others! Would I be out of order posting the full email here? Im sure it would interest you and the other ringers.

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by FUDGEY

Yeah Dogghound I dont think it was easy. If I remember correctly it was an avearge of 300 pigeon rings to one of the others! Would I be out of order posting the full email here? Im sure it would interest you and the other ringers.

Yes please mate, it would interest me more from a ecological view point than a ringing view point. I am sure others would be interested too.

[faz]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

Yes please mate, it would interest me more from a ecological view point than a ringing view point. I am sure others would be interested too.

i would fudgey if you dont want to pot on WAB pm me or see my mail on my profile please

[pressld2]

I'd be interested too Fudgey but it might be a good idea to get the sender's permission before reposting it here. Copyright issues...

Dave P.

[rossy]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

Its a good idea although I would have thought that the overall success rate would be low unless there is a high ringing effort in the area. I presume they have been nesting in the location for several years? I have collected rings from barn owl and little owl nests in the past in very small numbers (possibly moreof a reflection of diet compared to peregrine). Unfortunately peregrines here nest on high vertical cliffs plus feed predominantly on seabirds and feral pigeons most of which are not rung. Never thought to use a metal detector though would be a good way to see if there is anything under all of the broken down pellets, debris etc in the nests.

good point dogghound, as i know of plenty, that have been found, underneath where the resident pair breed , plus plenty of heads. rossy.

[FUDGEY]

I sure he will be OK with his findings getting shown on here....

A Winters Tale:

It seems very quiet at the moment, do I detect that most of the Nest record scheme participants are in some kind of mass deep hibernation and will not not be stirring until the first Blackbird sings it's song to herald the Spring once again. For those of you still awake I would like to share this story with you. I hope it may generate some interest out there somewhere and breathe some life back into the forum. This may go on a bit, but I'm sure that some of you may find it interesting, especially the ringers amongst you.

It all started on the 3rd of March 1997 at Craig Cerrig Gleisiad in the Brecon Beacons. The Winter was on its knees, and the long awaited Spring was promising some long awaited action once again. I was searching for the Raven's nest and scanning the cliffs above this towering ancient glacier of this formidable mountain monument. Soon enough I could see the mass of Sticks and heavy green stains of where the nest was situated. It was quite a steep climb to where the nest was, tucked under a small overhang and still in the process of being built. Whilst up there I also noticed that this ledge was a favoured Winter roost site of the Peregrine Falcon., and at some time in its very long history used for nesting by the Peregrine as well.

I looked down to the grass bank beneath, and the usual sight of Peregrine activity greeted me. Below this stained covered outcrop were feathers of previous kills, bleached bones of birds long past, racing pigeon rings, and quite a few pellets. I started squeezing through the pellets hoping of a recovery and was quite amazed when a British CC ring popped out; fantastic I thought, I squeezed some more, and incredibly enough out popped a Danish C ring.............It gets better........ believe me...........
I visited another Peregrine site the following day and found a Dutch C ring....Then a thought hit me, what if Searched at these sites with a Metal detector? It was getting close to the Peregrine nesting season, so I decided to leave it until the following Autumn/Winter before I searched again. After the nesting season(they end so quickly) I was armed with quite a cheap Detector,( I now have a slightly better one,) and I eagerly awaited the Autumn so that all aspects of nesting of the Falcons had long past.

It was a long time coming though, 18 months to be exact before I found my next one, but then thereafter, the results were outstanding and quite phenomenal.
A few other friends joined in this pursuit and it has now grown into a continuing and ongoing study where a number of papers, cheifly on the racing Pigeon/ Peregrine have been published. I was involved in, and found just under half of the recoveries listed below:



British recoveries: Peregrine Falcon. Blackbird x2. Dunlin; Jay: Starling x2 Greenfinch x2 Great tit x3 Chaffinch x2: Dipper x6: Reed bunting: Blue Tit x2. Sand Martain, Songthrush, StockDove and one of my own ringed Whinchats.

Recoveries from abroad:

Starlings from Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania x5, Russia, Estonia, Holland and Sweden. Redwings from Belgium x4, France, Sweden and Holland x2, A Dutch Songthrush, Blackbirds from Helgoland Germany, and Holland x2; Fieldfares from Norway and Finland, A Black headed Gull from Lithuania, a Common Tern from Holland and West Africa;(French ringed) a Chaffinch from Holland: A Sandwich Tern from Sweden, and a Chaffinch, Woodcock and Sand Martin from France.

This may get you thinking its an easy way of finding recoveries, but the amount of time, work and effort that went into it was incredible. Many Peregrine sites were visited over the Winters in South and Central Wales, most sites yielding no recoveries, just Racing Pigeon rings, so it was one hell of a moment when I finally found a recovery. Imagine it; your on a windswept moorland crag, a wall of rock stretches out before you and your looking for a C ring that's lost forever amongst the stones and crevices of heather and nettle laden ledges. Your looking for the smallest of metal objects in a vast seemingly impossible environment. Time after time its Pigeon ring, after Pigeon ring, site after site, weeks turn into months. Every signal your hoping for that shine of silver metal, but not today, then out of the blue, you find one........what a moment it was. It was the ultimate result of so much hard work and I now wear the rings that I had found on my
binocular strap. Real trophies..National treasures. Everyone one of them giving me the greatest of pleasures at that time.

Apart from a quantity of rings that were unidentified, and probably from exotic escaped birds like parrots and other cage birds, the recoveries of racing Pigeon rings were very impressive. Our earliest ring was from1906 and many hundreds of rings in the following decades, the 1910's, 1920's 30's 40's and 50's, they tailed off quite dramatically in the 1960's due to the impact on Peregrines by the use of DDT's, I think we only found a handful of rings from the 1960's, but then it picked up again in the mid 1970's. Rings from the 80's, 90's to present day numbered in their thousands.
We had Rings from all four nations of GB, Rollers(show Doves), Rings from France, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Germany and Poland. We even found a few of the Queens birds, if you didn't know she too keeps Pigeons. ER on the ring. Real special.

To date around 15,000 plus Racing pigeons rings have been collected and we worked out at the time when I was involved in the study that the hit rate was around 300 Pigeon rings per wild bird recovery. Not the greatest of odds.

It may not be every-ones cup of tea, but being a Ringer I think that every recovery is important for the work we do. I always check any dead birds I see on the side of the road, and if there's a chance of a recovery at some bird of prey nestsite, then I think it's well worth putting in the time and effort to find the information.I have found recoveries from Sparrowhawk Nestsites as well, but thats more complicated, and yet another not so long story. As you are all aware, there is only a small proportion of ringed birds that turn up every year, so every control or recovery is vital to our knowledge of understanding bird movements through the BTO's work. Why else do we do it?

I still get out with the detector each Winter,although not as intense as I did in Wales. It keeps me sharp for the season ahead. Unfortunately most of the coastal Peregrines in Devon fall straight into the sea, so its very difficult to get below such sites. I am still finding them though, my latest addition was a Great Spotted Woodpecker recovery in February 2011 from a site on Dartmoor. A great moment., the saga continues. They are out there, you just got to go out and find them. A few more planned this Winter, and hopefully a new recovery will be found there somewhere. And if I do find one, the best thrill will be I won't have a clue what the bird is until I receive the information back. Well worth the wait.

Best recovery for me: Arnhem: L101310. Common Tern: Age 1; Ringing date 24/06/98 Zwolle, De marslandens Holland.
I was up at a site in the Welsh Mountain Valleys tapping pellets on the base of the detector, then I had that familiar signal that this one has a ring in it.
I squeezed it out of the pellet on the 24th September the same year. Abertillery, South Wales:

Distance 637km. Direction 262 degrees. 92 days.

I did write to the ringer, being very excited about the find and sent him some photo's of the site where I found the ring, he wrote back with some photo's of where he ringed the bird, nest, eggs and chicks on a pebble dashed factory roof.

If you want to keep fit this Winter, put a Metal detector
on your Christmas wish
list, stretch those legs and find those recoveries that lie under discovered to add yet more knowledge to our understanding of the birds we ring. It's a Great Winter Sport, and I can guarantee, you won't be disappointed.

Happy Hunting:

Mark Lawrence.