Young Peregrine travels from Avon Gorge to the West Midlands

I've been colour-ringing peregrine chicks since 2007 with the help of fellow BTO ringer Ade George, and volunteer climbers from the British Mountaineering Council. In each year I have been building up the number of nest sites we visit to maximise how many chicks we ring. With bird ringing (or banding) it is a numbers game - the more birds you ring, the more likely someone will spot one of 'your' birds and report it. With colour-ringed birds this likelihood increases hugely - while only perhaps 2% of birds with just metal ID rings may be resighted, up to 98% of birds colour-ringed may be recovered.

BX - one of five chicks ringed in the Avon Gorge in 2010. Photo by Ed Drewitt.

With my peregrine work the results can be a little delayed. In the first first few years a peregrine's life is very nomadic as it travels around getting to know the region and no doubt look for a mate. So it's not until a peregrine begins to settle at a nest site at two or three years old that it may be seen and identified by birders.


Of my peregrines that have been re-sighted so far, most have been quite close to Bath and Bristol, near where we ringed them. For example, one was seen with a female partner 15km south of Bristol from where it was ringed two years later; another is now the breeding male at a nest in Bath where it hatched; and a third individual was re-seen later in the autumn at the site where it was ringed and had fledged earlier that year.


Our furthest travelled bird however goes to the following individual. One of the young peregrines we ringed in the Avon Gorge in 2010 was also filmed for the BBC's Springwatch.
He was given a blue colour-ring with black letters, BT (his sibling BX is in the photo above)


He was spotted and photographed by Michael Colquhoun in the Malvern Hills, Worcestershire back in April 2011. This was exciting news and it was great to know one of the chicks had ventured so far. 

BT in April, 2011 - now is partial adult plumage in the Malvern Hills. Photo by Michael Colquhoun

BT's colour ring clearly visible. Photo by Michael Colquhoun.

However, I then had sad news in October 2011 that a peregrine with one of my colour-rings had been found dead by a dog walker not far from KIdderminster in the West Midlands. After exchanging e-mails with local birder Jason Kernohan who met the dog walker and recovered the dead bird, I discovered it was the same colour-ringed individual, BT. 


He had been dead for four days before being found (as indicated by the development of moaggots). He was taken to a vet by the police for an x-ray to confirm he hadn't been shot. He had been found below power lines and seems likely he had died from some interaction with these. 

BT's colour ring. Photo by Jason Kernohan

BT's metal BTO ring. Photo by Jason Kernohan.

Despite this young bird's death I'm pleased we know his final outcome and where he travelled. It helps build up a bigger picture of what peregrines do when they fledge. It's interesting that we've not heard from the other four chicks that were in that same family. Yet we have heard from this individual twice! Hopefully as the other four (assuming they are all alive) begin breeding they will be spotted and identified by myself or someone else watching them.

ringing baby ringed plovers

This warm weather has been great for our spring migrants. Now the prevailing wind has gone from north to south, many of our spring migrants should have an extra boost as they make their one into the UK.
After a wonderful bird ID walk I was leading on the Downs yesterday I had a lovely walk with a friend down at Chew Valley Lake. Reed warblers were singing away, busily setting up new territories - my first ones this year.

I then zipped back to Bristol to help Lyndon Roberts ring a family of one day ringed plover chicks - there were four eggs, but two disappeared, and the remaining two hatched!! They were incredibly difficult to see - their cryptic colours hide them very well indeed!

I then went off to try and ring some raven chicks in a quarry - sadly the nest was empty. We think the young may have been predated and saw the parents nearby but they weren't showing any interest. Got some good views of a peregrine though in lovely evening sunlight.

Volcano

It's surreal looking up to the sky and not seeing any planes or exhaust trails! A remarkable situation of how the effects of a volcano has ground all nothern European flights. It's fascinating following the stories of how people are coping, many taking long car or rail journeys across Europe to get back and also the impact on industry such as fruit and flowers which would normally be exported to the UK but instead are staying put. I've got friends stuck out in India, one's a teacher - no doubt many schools will be missing many of their teachers today. Apparently volcanic ash did settle on cars in the west region over night. I must have a look outside and see for myself!

A quiet night last night - mainly sorting out the Bristol Ornithological Society's website and preparing for a presentation I am doing next week in Plymouth on raptor migration. Then chilled and watched a bit of tv!

Nice drive in this morning - a few mistle thrushes in Clifton at the top of some lime trees and a squirrel that couldn't quite decide what side of the road it wanted to be on - fortunately it made the right and safe decision!

Just heard from a journalist at Bristol magazine wanting to do an interview about the Avon Gorge peregrines - it's coming up to their 20th anniversary of nesting the Gorge which is remarkable!!

Communicate 2009

Well, what a conference. Communicate 2009, http://www.festivalofnature.org/conference.php?pageid=303&parentid=299&public=0 excelled itself. It had some amazing speakers, a relaxed atmosphere, much more time for audience participation and great content. It felt like a true shift from perhaps the stodge (in Jonathan Porritt's words!) of environmental messaging which we were grappling with the year before to a true move forward, bulldozing some of the communication barriers and entering into a new world of engaging people through spirituality and enjoyment. There were some brilliant delegates there too - while there were many who had been before, there was a really great assortment of newcomers. I look forward to helping develop Communicate 2010! Here's to it! Look out on the website for content, features and photos of this year's conference.