First Common Tern sighting at Dungeness 10th August 2019
We have had our first Common Tern sighted at Dungeness by Martin Cassmore. Clearly on the way south let's hope it gets seen a few more times.
11th August - Best Kite Day Ever
Thanks to the wind and the cancellation of the Walthamstow Wetlands Wildlife Fair I decided to put a couple of spring traps out in the field this morning. The reward was three Red Kites by 9am. All juvenile birds all three were wing tagged before wing measurements and weights were taken then released.
Juvenile Red Kite Spring Trapped 21 July 2019
The first juvenile Red Kite of the autumn was spring trapped on a rabbit today. It is very likely this is the bird which fledged from the nest in June in the wood near the field it was caught in this morning. Wing tagged with 1A on the tag.
Aims
The aim of the Southern Colour Marking Group is to study various species of bird using colour marking in London, Essex and Hertfordshire. We do this by catching the birds using a cannon net, a technique requiring a special licence, or finding nests of breeding birds and marking the young in the nest.
Birds captured using cannon nets are extracted from the net before being marked with individually numbered metal leg rings. Whilst ringing the birds, we take measurements and study plumage characteristics. As many birds as possible are marked with a colour mark (either leg ring or wing tag) which can be read with a telescope without the bird being recaptured.
Links
Here are links to other related websites:
Lee Valley Regional Park Authority
If you know of a website that we have missed, please contact us.
Bird ringing in Britain is licensed and coordinated by The British Trust for Ornithology. Bird ringing in Europe is coordinated by EURING.
A catalogue of colour ringing projects throughout Europe is voluntarily maintained by Dirk Raes at European colour-ring Birding.
Acknowledgements
The group operates with the excellent support and cooperation of The Essex Wildlife Trust at Blue House Farm which operates the nature reserve and allows access for Brent Goose catching. The Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and the London Wildlife Trust allow us to access sites in the Lee Valley Park for Heron and Egret work. Richard Bott kindly allows access to woodland on the Bott Estate for Red Kite monitoring.
We are grateful to the Essex Birdwatching Society and Essex Field Club for providing funding for the colour ringing programme for Brent Geese, London Wildlife Trust for Herons and Jenny Weston at the RSPB for support with Red Kite wing tagging.
We also acknowledge financial support from Merlin Ringing Supplies.
Header images on this website are licensed under the Creative Commons license by the photographers.