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.
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kite | 3 | 3 |
| Buzzard |
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.
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kite | 1 | 1 |
| Buzzard |
Kite and Buzzard ringing
Thursday evening we wing tagged a brood of three Red Kites for Barry Trevis and also spent the rest of the evening with him ringing a brood of three Buzzards. This kicked off our weekend of Raptor Ringing with a number of SCRG members attending and ringing Kite and Buzzard for the first time. Saturday our climber Richard Fenna came over and climbed four nests for us ringing two broods of Red Kite and two broods of Buzzard. Unfortunately one Buzzard nest with three young was too high up in a very thin Ash and we were unable to reach it. The other really good element was Dave Dutton was able to come over and wing tag the Buzzards with his project registered wing tags. An excellent day with everyone working hard to achieve the final outcome. Whilst relays were undertaken to ring the various nests the crow trap was operated in the back field resulting in 3 Jackdaws and 10 Rooks also ringed during the day. Below are a range of photos from the day.
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kite | 6 | 6 |
| Buzzard |
Methods
The Southern Colour Ringing Group rings Red Kite and Buzzard pulli (young in the nest) and traps full grown birds using large spring traps baited with carrion at a site in North Hertfordshire.
Nests are climbed up to by a contract climber and young removed to ring. We also fit coloured wing tags with various year codes allocated to us by the national co-ordinator which allows the birds to be relocated without needing to be recaptured. There are many more bird-watchers looking for colour-marked birds, so this greatly improves our chances of understanding the movements of the birds we are studying. Currently we are fitting Yellow tags with Black letters to Kites and Black tags with White letters to Buzzards.
If you see a bird with one of our wing tags, please send details (ring-code, date, location, species) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Ringing totals
2016 year totals
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kite | 7 | 0 |
| Buzzard |
2017 year totals
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kite | 2 | 0 |
| Buzzard |
2018 year totals
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kite | 5 | 5 |
| Buzzard | 0 | 0 |
2019 year totals
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kite | 10 | 10 |
| Buzzard | 0 | 0 |
Grand totals
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kite | 24 | 15 |
| Buzzard | 0 | 0 |