Online ringing report released

The BTO has recently released the 2014 online ringing report which, for the first time, includes information on nest recording totals and also timing of breeding for many species. The report is freely available on the BTO website and is well worth a look.

Looking just at the figures for Cornwall, the contribution the five-year-old ringing group has made, to nest recording in particular, is clear from the annual totals. Obviously the totals are due to the efforts of many different recorders, but I think group members can take some worthy credit.

The online report also details some of the more interesting movements of ringed birds reported in 2014, and some of the highlights involving Cornwall include:

• Brent Goose from Iceland that stages on Strangford Lough every autumn before wintering at Torpoint

• Storm Petrel ringed in Portugal in June 2013 and recaught at The Lizard in June 2014
• German-ringed Spoonbill seen on Amble Marshes
• Red Kite ringed in the nest in Shropshire in 2013 and seen at Towednack in June 2014
• From Norway, a Kestrel was found dead in Perranporth in November and a colour-ringed Curlew Sandpiper was seen on the Camel estuary in September, just two weeks after ringing
• Woodcock ringed near Coverack in February 2013 was shot in Russia in April 2014

• Black-tailed Godwit colour-ringed in Iceland in July 2010 and seen at Devoran in December 2010, then on the Ouse Washes (Norfolk) in February 2011 and back at Devoran in December 2011, December 2012 and November 2014
• Curlews from Germany (x2) and The Netherlands seen in the county
• Swedish-ringed Turnstone seen in Penzance harbour 

• Colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls seen originating from Poland (4), Denmark (2), The Netherlands and Belgium
• Colour-ringed Mediterranean Gulls seen originating from France (18), Hungary (9), Poland (8), The Netherlands (2), Denmark, Germany and Belgium
• Guillemot ringed on Skomer Island in 1989 and found dead near Bude 25 years later (the national longevity record is 36 years old!)
• Britain's first ever foreign movement of a Chough involved a French-ringed bird seen in Devon in January 2014, Cornwall in February and on the Isles of Scilly in March
• Firecrest ringed in Norfolk in December 2013 and recaught a year later in Penryn and a bird ringed at Stithians in December 2012 recaught in Southampton in October 2014 (recaptures of Firecrest more than a year after ringing are unusual) 

• Sand Martin ringed at Nanjizal in July 2014 was recaught in France a month later (the first movement abroad of a Cornish-ringed bird)
• Unusual autumn movement of a Blackcap ringed at Nanjzal in September 2014 and recaught the next day on Lundy Island, 144km distant
• Danish-ringed Reed Warbler recaught at Nanjizal a month after ringing (only the sixth to be found in the UK) and a Danish-ringed Dunnock died hitting a window in Truro (the first foreign movement ever involving Cornwall and the first Danish-ringed Dunnock found in the UK)
• Chaffinch ringed at the Stithians feeding station in December 2011 and recaught in Norway over two years later in March 2014