Southern Colour Ringing Group

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A slightly frustrating day a set for either Wigeon or Brent Geese was slightly strange in that there were no Wigeon at all on the fleet and most of them were out on the creek for the whole of the day. However, over 1,000 Brent Geese at Marsh Farm saw groups on the catch field early on and we elected to take a small catch of 6 birds really early as we knew we could re set. Following the early success several larger flocks congregated on the catch field and we were very unfortunate to not have a large number in the catching area on a few occasions. Attempts to "twinkle" them were very nearly successful but a screaming child and a Sparrowhawk meant we were unlucky. Eventually a an opportunity to take a second small catch arose and firing on five birds resulted in a three being caught.

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A bonus catch of 3 Brent Geese after resetting following a catch of 17 Wigeon at Marsh Farm.

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Running spring traps for two days resulted in a bird on each day with a retrap from one of the pulli ringed in the summer on 22nd October and a new youngster on 23rd October.

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.

Donate and win

The Southern Colour Ringing Group Giant Cash Bonanza is a licensed Lottery supporting the group and the purchase of rings and satellite tracking devices for monitoring bird migration, behaviour and biology.

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From September 2023 there will be four Superdraws through the year.

These are the guaranteed Superdraw amounts that a lucky participant will win:-

1 x £10,000 drawn at the end of March

1 x £5,000 drawn at the end of June

1 x £10,000 drawn at the end of September

1 x £5,000 drawn at the end of December

The first Superdraw for a guaranteed £10,000 will take place on Friday 29th September 2023.  

The weekly prize draw amounts are also changing on the 7th July. 

Weekly guaranteed cash prizes are:-

1 x £1,000

4 x £25

26 x £10

31 guaranteed winners every week!

Links

Here are links to other related websites:

Brent Goose Colour Marking 

South England Kite Group

Essex Wildlife Trust

London Wildlife Trust

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.

The development of the dynamic mapping was supported by a grant from the British Birds Charitable Trust.

We also acknowledge financial support from Merlin Ringing Supplies.

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