Record Breaking Tit

With intermittent rain showers throughout the morning only a couple of hours of ringing were taken. It seemed as rain showers came and went many diurnal migrants had turned back and headed Northwest. Counts of 40 Redpoll, 30 Goldfinch, 20 Siskin, 50 Chaffinch/Brambling and a handful of Yellowhammers returning early on; 42 Waxwings grounded in the garden!

The ringing was OK today with 20 new birds before the rain stopped play entirely. 1 Goldcrest, 1 Coal tit and 18 Blue Tit. Talking of Blue Tits, today we received 2 recoveries of birds ringed this Autumn, the first ringed by Gert on 24th September had traveled 424Km in 44 days to the Netherlands where it was caught by a ringer. (see map below.)

Blue Tit movement, 424km in 44days

The second was actually a record breaker as it was (according to the Danish Migration Atlas) the furthest Southwesterly recovery of a Blue Tit ever. I ringed this bird on 3rd October 2012; a day when over 140 Blue Tit were ringed. The recovery came from an astonishing 548km away in just 19 days when the bird was captured by a ringer and released.

The record breaker, 548km in 19days

 Below is a map of both Blue Tit recoveries on 1 page. 

Both the above Blue Tit recoveries shown on one page.

The above maps show the incredible data we can collect from bird ringing efforts and with over 3900 Blue Tits ringed this year we can expect some more information soon. We've ringed a little over 15'000 birds this year at Gedser so hopefully some more great recoveries will appear soon.

I spent 2 hours Sea-watching today (11:00 - 13:00) I counted the following birds migrating.

Eider 453, Red-throated Diver 19, Black-throated Diver 1, Long-tailed Duck 13, Common Scoter 14, Red-breasted Merganser 31, Mallard 3, Goldeneye 1, Velvet Scoter 3, Whooper Swan 3, Little Gull 2, Purple Sandpiper 1, Snow Buntings which came in off the sea from the Northwest 5! Scaup 6, Great Crested Grebe 1. Finch migration slow with Goldfinch 40, Greenfinch 38, Siskin 28, Linnet 7, Twite 6 also 42 Twite were resting. 13 Rooks and 2 Sparrowhawks also migrated.

Grounded migrants, Curlew, Golden Plover, Waxwing 28 (plus the above mentioned 42), Coal Tit 2, Goldcrest 6, Blackbird 3.

Blog and Maps: Craig Brookes