About the project

We have consulted with the British Trust for Ornithology, who actively encourage the monitoring of Red List species such as the House Sparrow, and this project had been registered with them as a Retrapping Adults for Survival (RAS) scheme, using ringing and colour-ringing birds to enable them to be individually identified by bird ringers, birdwatchers, or members of the public.The birds are captured (under licence) and are fitted with a BTO metal ring on their right leg, and with a colour ring on the left leg. The colour ring has a code (the rings are Black, with White lettering, and the code is 2 digits either numbers or letters) that can be easily read using binoculars. Anybody seeing a House Sparrow with a colour ring can contact us at shetlandsparrows@gmail.com. We need to know the code on the ring, and the date and place you saw it. Many thanks for your help!

Thanks to the support of the following:

Shetland Ringing Group for supplying the metal rings for this project

The Shetland Wildlife Fund for covering the cost of buying the colour rings

Plantiecrub Garden Centre and Shop (www.plantiecrub.co.uk) for supplying bird feeders and wild bird seed

Shetland Walking and Wildlife (www.shetlandwalkingandwildlife.co.uk) for allowing Graham time to put his surveying and bird ringing skills to good use

Saturday 5 January 2013

A look back at 2012

Before we get too carried away with this new project here on Shetland, I thought I'd have a quick look back at the my ringing achievements of 2012.

There was quite a broad spread of species last year, thanks to my starting the year off in Suffolk at Wyken Hall, then moving for the summer to the Isle of Canna in the Inner Hebrides, then making the final move up to Shetland in October.

The ringing totals below take all of this in to account. The only birds that are not part of these totals are the seabirds that I did with the Highland Ringing Group on their visits to Canna. These included Shag, Guillemot, Razorbill, Puffin. Kittiwake, Fulmar, Manx Shearwater, and Storm Petrel.

Also not included are the Manx Shearwaters I ringed with Martin Carthy of Mallaig. Martin does a wonderful job rescuing storm-bound Manx Shearwaters that are blown inshore from the Small Isles when they fledge.

So all of the birds ringed below are those done on my own rings, from Suffolk, Canna, and Shetland (oh, and a few from Mull, and Herefordshire too!).

Here goes:

Numbers are for: Adult, Pulli, Retraps

Shag 0,0,1
Sparrowhawk 1,0,0
Oystercatcher 0,4,0
Great Skua 0,3,1
Common Gull 0,6,0
Herring Gull 2,3,4
Great Black-backed Gull 0,2,2
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1,0,1
Swallow 2,15,2
Meadow Pipit 5,4,0
Rock Pipit 2,0,0
Pied Wagtail 3,0,0
Wren 18,0,6
Dunnock 24,0,18
Robin 27,5,10
Wheatear 15,5,1
Blackbird 26,8,12
Song Thrush 2,0,0
Sedge Warbler 10,0,3
Whitethroat 1,0,0
Blackcap 6,0,1
Chiffchaff 4,0,3
Willow Warbler 14,9,2
Goldcrest 5,0,0
Long-tailed Tit 8,0,17
March Tit 6,0,28
Coal Tit 17,0,12
Blue Tit 72,0,66
Great Tit 36,0,43
Nuthatch 0,0,1
Starling 14,0,0
House Sparrow 61,0,1
Chaffinch 43,0,7
Greenfinch 26,0,18
Goldfinch 9,0,1
Siskin 3,0,1
Linnet 26,0,1
Twite 1,0,0
Lesser Redpoll 3,0,0
Bullfinch 1,0,0
Yellowhammer 11,0,1
Reed Bunting 54,0,9

Totals 559,64,273,897

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