Controls
Controls are birds ringed elsewhere which we subsequently catch at Rye Meads. We control a lot fewer birds than we get recoveries from those that we ring, but it is always exciting to catch a bird with a strange ring, especially if that ring is from a foreign ringing scheme.
The details can sometimes take a while to come through to us, but here are some of the more interesting Controls whose ringing details have been notified to the Group.
A review of ringing in 2022
In 2022 we ringed just under 3,000 birds, well down on our long term average but better than the previous two Covid-impacted years. There were however some records set!
More…July-August 2023 – Another large flock of flightless ducks in moult
For the second year in a row, we've hosted large flocks of flightless ducks in moult. Not quite a record number, but we had record counts of two species - which ones were they?
More…May-June 2023 – Quieter than usual on the rafts as In Flew Enza
Avian Flu hit our gull colony, but wildfowl were present in good numbers. But our most unexpected bird of the period was a species not recorded here since 1998!
More…March-April 2023 – two additions to the Rye Meads list
Some outstanding birds graced the Spring migration this year. Which species became our 230th and 231st recorded at Rye Meads?
More…January-February 2023 – All quiet for the winter
It may have been a quiet time of the year, but there was still enough to interest a keen birder! Not least the tiniest of our woodpeckers, which although caught didn't make our ringing list - find out why...
More…A traveller returns
We already know from BTO recoveries that wintering Green Sandpipers in the UK normally breed in Scandinavia, but now we have more specific news of where one of the Rye Meads wintering birds goes to breed. It's even been photographed there!
More…