Treshnish Isles controls

As ringers submit there ringing records for the year more controls turn up, these three from the Treshnish Isles.

2700717 Ringed ENR 01.08.2014 Recaptured Fladda Treshnish Isles 03.07.15
366 days 259km 209d

2681051 Ringed ENR 23.07.2012 Recaptured Lunga Treshnish Isles 03.07.15
1075 days, 262km 209d

2682765  Ringed ENR 01.08.2012 Recaptured Lunga Treshnish Isles 01.07.15
699 days 262km 209d

Results from a September Trip

A quick visit by members of the Birmingham contingent occurred over mid-September. From two nights, 14th and 15th, twenty-two recaptures of birds we originally ringed were made. Interestingly none were from 2015 (so where had all these birds gone?). Sixteen birds were from 2014, three from 2013, one from 2012, and one 2641463 originally ringed in 2009.

There was one late retrap from earlier in the year.
2673176 Ringed ENR 17.07.15 recaptured ENR 13.08.15

This from Malta

Researchers from the EU LIFE+ Malta Seabird Project today confirmed that Storm Petrels (Kangu ta’ Filfla), small seabirds nesting on the island of Filfla, have been successfully tracked for the first time in Europe using radio-tracking technology.

Previous attempts to radio-track Storm Petrels in Europe had failed as this research method is extremely difficult due to the small size of these seabirds and the vast areas they can cover.
Last July, BirdLife Malta researchers equipped 34 Storm Petrel adults on Filfla with radio-tags which are very light and small tracking devices that emit radio-signals. Researchers carried out 30 flights with a Cessna aircraft equipped with special antennas covering more than 8,000 nautical miles over the sea. In addition to the aerial surveys, researchers used antennas on a boat and on land to monitor signals from the tagged birds.
During July and August over 200 signals from 24 tagged birds were received and logged onto a special software pin-pointing the birds’ locations with GPS accuracy. Some signals were picked up as far out as the Italian island of Linosa.

http://gozonews.com/24910/a-first-in-europe-malta-leads-storm-petrels-research/

Some stragglers

All of these birds, bar the last one, were caught and ringed new by Stefan on 17th July 2015 and then recaptured by us during our stay.
2653188, 2653190, 2653489, 2673141, 2673142, 2673150, 2673154, 2673163, 2673176

2664348 was caught by Treshnish Isle Auk RG at Lunga on 13 July and recaptured by us on 11 Aug. 262km  29d 39days

ENR in a bubble

Faraid Head, Sule Skerry, Twinyess

The following birds were all ringed at Faraid Head on the 1st July 2015 by Tony Crease and then recaught by us on Nan Ron between 10-13th August 2015
2644989, 2644997, 2594014,  2594021, 2594023, 2594030
 27km 103d at between 40-42 days


Three birds were swapped with Sule Skerry
2674091 (14.07.2015) and 2720112 (18.07.2015) were recaught on ENR on the 12th and 10th August respectively
60km 177d 29 and 23days
2696756 was ringed on ENR on 28.07.2014 and caught on Sule Skerry on 18.07.2015
60km 357d 355days

Two birds ringed on Twinyess, North Ron were recaught on ENR.
2708245 25.07.2015 ENR 11.08.2015 17days
2708299 10.08.2015 ENR 13.08.2015 3 days
140km 231d (SW)

Good news from elsewhere

Thanks to two seabird conservation projects, the rare storm petrel has this year made a comeback in the West Country, breeding at new locations on the Isles of Scilly and for a second year on Lundy.
see:
http://www.piratefm.co.uk/news/latest-news/1733147/rare-seabird-makes-comeback-in-west-country/

ENR birds elsewhere

2696768
28.07.2014 ENR
02.08.2015 Sumburgh, Shetland
370d 226km 51deg

2696919
29.07.2014 ENR
10.07.2015 Fair Isle, Shetland
346d 190km 55deg

Two from North Ron

2708245
25.07.2015 Twinyess, North Ronaldsay, Orkney
11.08.2015 ENR
17days 140km 231deg

2708299
10.08.2015 Twinyess, North Ronaldsay, Orkney
13.08.2015 ENR
3 days 140km 231deg

A teenager

2404832
Ringed ENR 21 July 1997 by Bache, Shearwater and McShane
Recaptured 10 August 2015 by us - 6594 days.

Will have to go back and see if it has been captured at all inbetween these dates.

Some views from 2015. Note it never rains!

First set of data return from our trip

The wonders of a fully electronic Ringing Scheme are revealed as we are getting back data on some of our birds when I only submitted our information a couple of days ago.

2451071
26.07.2012 Duncansby Head, Highland
13.08.2015 ENR
1113 days 75km 263deg

2696269
01.08.2014 Sumburgh Head, Shetland
11.08.2015 ENR
375 days 226km 231deg

2671836
02.08.2014 Rhuba Nan Sasan, Loch Ewe, Highland
10.08.2015 ENR
373 days 110km 47deg

2696395
08.08.2014 Sumburgh Head, Shetland
13.08.2015 ENR
370 days 226km 231deg

2533385 and 2533386
08.08.2014 Birsay, Orkney
10-11.08.2015 ENR
367-368 days 88km 226deg

2622212
24.08.2014 Faraid Head, Highland
12.08.2015 ENR
353 days 27km 103deg

2707306
25.08.2014 Fair Isle, Shetland
13.08.2015 ENR
353 days 190km 235deg

2531253
27.08.2014 Strathy Point, Highland
13.08.2015 ENR
351 days 18km 258deg

2351390
25.07.2015 Tronach Head, Near Portgordon, Moray
10.08.2015 ENR
16 days, 128km 318deg

We then had some retraps - birds originally ringed on Nan Ron and then recaptured again at a later date.

2614999
04.7.2011 - 12.08.2015
And then eight birds all ringed earlier in 2015 which we subsequently recaught a month later.

From the BTO Twitter account. Spot ours?

Jen'sphoto contribution at:

nan_ron_2015_share

2015 Part One

The final figures from our 2015 visit. More on the stay later.

New birds 1166, Controls (all UK) 21.
Retraps, not including any of our own from this visit, 71.
The retraps break down into:
1997 x1 - eighteen years old (some way off from the oldest 31y11m9d; 1962-1994)
One each from the years - 2001, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, two from 2012, eight from 2014 and 20 from an earlier visit this year.

2015 begins, and there is still seven weeks to go

It is several weeks before we make our annual visit to Nan Ron but already some recoveries are starting to come in.
All of the following birds were caught over the period 12-14 June by Hugh Insley on Priest Island. Hugh visits this early as he concentrates on catching breeding birds (no tape lure) so we can assume that these birds are part of the breeding colony on Priest.

2608509   31.07.2006. 2230hrs. 3240days 97km 227deg
2659263   02.08.2011. 0200hrs. 1410days
2681175   23.07.2012. 0230hrs. 1055days
2681196   24.07.2012. 2320hrs. 1054days
2700442   31.07.2014. 2330hrs. 317days
2700625   01.08.2014. 0054hrs. 317days

Data crunching begins.

Having acquired the consent of all ringing groups and individuals that have ringed Storm Petrels on Nan Ron over the years, the BTO have released all the data in the central database to me. Primarily this consists of two sets of records - all the new birds and all of the recoveries. We have not considered retraps as from the early years they wont have been reported and from recent years we dont know whether all have been submitted or not, so we are keeping to the knowns.

A quick and ready analysis of the new birds ringed by year, which totals 28,653 (to the end of 2014), is shown below. It can be clearly seen that capture and ringing activity increased 50fold in the years following 1999. Since then ringing totals have averaged c1700/year.

2015 season

This year we are going slightly later than we normally would to work around a full moon - we will thus be going at the beginning of August rather than the end of July. To date the team consists of 13 - some regulars, some returners and some Nan Ron virgins.
Not long now.....

Norwegian controls

The three Norwegian controls from 2014 have just been received.

8E29782
Ringed:
Adult 24 Aug 2013 Flem, Sakshammeren, Haram, More og Romsdal
Controlled:
Adult 27 Jul 2014 ENR
337 days, 736 km 232deg

ED00253
Ringed:
Adult 24 Aug 2013 Hamnaholmen, Hellandsvagane, Sansoya, More og Romsdal
Controlled:
Adult 31 Jul 2014 ENR
341 days, 674 km 233deg

8E29909
Ringed:
Adult 25 Aug 2013  Flem, Sakshammeren, Haram, More og Romsdal
Cotrolled:
Adult 30 Jul 2014 ENR
339 days, 736 km 232deg

Tail end Charlies

Two birds notified recently, one of a bird (2700081) caught on Nan Ron on the 29th July 2014 and recaptured 27 days later 27km down the coast at Faraid Head, and another (2682142) originally caught on Nan Ron on 29th Jul 2013 and caught at the same ringing session at Faraid Head as the former bird this time 392days had elapsed between captures. Thanks to TC for catching our birds!