Ringing and Results

Ringing Review of 2019

Highlights included record annual totals for Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Robin and Reed Warbler; our 4th Tree Pipit, our 8th and 9th Marsh Tits, and our first brood of Tawny Owls for five years, plus a full grown bird netted in the autumn, equalling our record Tawny Owl year.

Gordon Duns and Roger Emmens were the lucky ringers of these Tawny Owlets

After a disappointing 2018 hit by various instances of bad weather, 2019 was much better and many breeding species bounced back with bumper productivity. Numbers were therefore generally very good for most passerines: indeed, we caught over a thousand birds a month for three consecutive months in June, July and August for the first time in the Group’s sixty year history. The exceptions to the bonanza strangely included the thrushes, and also swallows and sand martins, owing to a lack of roosts in the Autumn – they just didn’t seem to pass through Rye Meads.

The down side was a continued collapse in numbers of wildfowl caught, reflecting a recent history of issues with the South Lagoons adversely affecting the numbers of wildfowl using this area. As always the issues are complex, but the continued presence of illegally introduced carp in the lagoons, an increase in the rate of flow through the sluice and lagoons, and the presence of a large flock of non-breeding Mute Swans during the summer all combine to have a deleterious effect on invertebrate populations and hence our waterbirds. In addition, bank maintenance resulted in fewer breeding sites usable by ducks and so less ducklings in the Lagoons in summer.

By contrast, most wildfowl continue to flourish in the North Lagoons, including a record year for Pochard broods, but sadly we have limited opportunities to catch them there.

The table shows the totals of birds ringed at Rye Meads by species, covering the last two complete calendar years and the grand totals for the Group.