Cornwall Ringing

 Yesterday morning (31st), Luke and I were up early visiting a private ringing site in the Nanjizal Valley in West Cornwall (West Cornwall Ringing Group). Thanks for arranging Luke, and thanks to Kester and Jon for allowing me onto your site.

We arrived at 7am, and got straight on with the ringing. The first bird I ringed was a Chiffchaff (the first of 26 ringed by me that morning!). Other birds ringed were: Blackcap (12), Robin (6), Song Thrush (5), Redwing (3), Blackbird (3), Great-spotted Woodpecker (2;1 new and 1 retrap), Goldcrest (1), Firecrest (3), Cetti's Warbler (3; 1 retrap and 2 new) and, best of all, Yellow-browed Warbler (3 new birds) 67 birds from a total of 80!

The obvious stand out birds were, of course, the Yellow-browed Warblers, the Firecrests and the Cetti's Warblers - 3 new species for me. The Yellow-Browed Warblers were also colour-ringed, as part of a national scheme (see here), to try and find out a little more about their distribution and wintering sites. This site has colour-ringed just over 40, this winter alone!

Yellow-browed Warbler

Firecrest

Cetti's Warbler (10 tail feathers)

The morning was very busy, but we did manage to keep an eye on birds flying over, the best of which was a Merlin (year tick 197).

Falmouth - 29th October 2024

 Today, we spent the day in and around the Falmouth area, with our nephew, Luke and family. We managed another couple of year ticks, Firecrest (195) and Common Scoter (196),   had amazing views of a winter-plumaged Red-throated Diver and saw another couple of ringed Herring Gulls.

We started the day with a walk around the Penryn Campus, where Luke found us at least half a dozen Firecrests.

Firecrest

Afterwards, we popped down to Falmouth, where we found Herring Gulls,W:073 (down on the water' edge) and W:120 (in town).

W:073

W:120

After a quick visit to Pendennis Point, where Luke found me a fly-by Common Scoter, we headed off to Swanpool. On arrival, we (Luke) spotted a Red-throated Diver fishing with a Cormorant and a Shag, about 5-10m off shore.

Red-throated Diver

St Ives - 26th - 27th October 2024

 Jayne and I arrived in St Ives on Saturday afternoon, and, after settling in to our accommodation, we had a walk around the town, enjoying the lovely sunshine and sunshine.

View from or apartment

As always, I had my eyes peeled for darvic-ringed Herring Gulls, and soon found two new birds; W916 and W918. I'll send off the details, but I'm sure they'll have been ringed in and around the harbour.

W916

W918

We spent the whole of Sunday in and around the town. We started off walking around the town, where we saw W916 and W918 again. A small group of c.40 Turnstones were also around the harbour, along with a single Black-headed Gull and a single Great Black-backed Gull. We then walked up onto The Island and spent a couple of hours in and around that area, adding Gannet (c.10), Red Admiral (1) and, best of all, a female-type Black Redstart (Year Tick 194).We found the bird feeding on rocks below the Coastguards' Lookout. Amazingly, another bird was found a couple of hours later, feeding around the rook of The Guildhall!!

Black Redstart

Walking back along the harbour, we spotted another ringed Herring Gull,W917. This was a new bird, seen on the railings around the harbour.

W917

Colour ringed Herring Gulls - Cornwall 2019

Last week, Jayne and I were in St Ives for a week, where I managed to spot 5 different colour-ringed Herring Gulls.

3 of the 5 birds were familiar birds, namely W:185, W:186 and W:195, all of whom I've seen there in previous years (see here).  

W:185

W:186

W:195

As you can see from the ring numbers they were all ringed by the same people, West Cornwall Ringing Group in St Ives in June 2014 and have been reported in and around the same area ever since. 

Whilst there, I also spotted 2 new birds; W:192 and 3KC1. W:192 was also ringed in St Ives in June 2014, but was spotted 4km away on the RSPB Hayle Estuary reserve, on 23rd July 2019, 5 years and 36 days since ringing. Unfortunately, it was too distant for a photograph.

The final bird, 3KC1, was seen in St Ives Harbour on 20th July 2019. This bird was found to have been ringed, by Guernsey Gulls, at Chouet Landfill site, Guernsey, on 12th May 2015, and aged as a 3rd year bird. My sighting was the 6th since ringing. All previous sightings had come from Cornwall (St Ives, Hayle Estuary and Newlyn Harbour), during the summer months, July August and September. There have not, yet, been any records during the winter months or from a breeding site.

3KC1

St Ives' Herring Gulls

Back in 2015, I blogged about a couple of darviced Herring Gulls that I'd seen in St Ives, Cornwall (see here). I was back there on Monday (24th), and saw 1 of the same birds, and a new one.

The first bird I saw was W:195, the bird I'd seen back in 2015. It was in pretty much the same place as in 2015, namely on top of an ice cream shelter on the harbour front in St Ives. It was originally ringed in St Ives in June 2014, and had been reported from there on several occasions when I reported it then. Hopefully, it'll have been reported a few more times in the last 2 years.

W:195

The other bird, a new one for me, was W:186. This bird was also present in and around the harbour in St Ives, heling itself to scraps of food!!

W:186

The birds were ringed as a part of a scheme, lead by the West Cornwall Ringing Group (see here). I'll email them my sightings and update the blog when I hear back from them.

UPDATE: I heard back the Ringing Group today (many thanks for the quick reply), and both birds were ringed in St Ives in June 2014. They've both been reported many times since ringing, mainly in and around St Ives, and the Hayle Estuary (4km), but W:195 did also go on a day trip to Mousehole (13km away) in January 2017.

Colour-ringed Gulls - an update

Earlier in the summer I blogged about 2 different color ringed gulls that I'd seen around the country, see here and here. Well, I've had details back from 1 of the 2 gulls, so I thought I'd pass on the information.

First the Great Black-backed Gull, that I saw in RSPB Titchwell. At the time I thought it was a Norwegian bird, so I was very pleased when I received an e-mail from Norway confirming this. The bird in question had been ringed as a pullus in July 2014, and had been recorded 3 times in the area in the next few days. My record was the first sighting since then, and the first one outside Norway.

In addition to these 2 gulls, I also spotted a couple of colour ringed  Herring Gulls in St Ives, Cornwall last week. Again, a quick search of the European Color ringing website ( see here), suggested that these 2 birds were local born birds, and an email from the West Cornwall Ringing Group confirmed this. Both gulls had been ringed in St Ives in June 2014 as part of  a study to investigate the movements, and feeding habits, of these gulls. Both birds have been recorded in St Ives, with one visiting the nearby RSPB Hayle Estuary Reserve.  Here's a couple of pictures of both birds.

W:185

 W:195