Greylag Goose
The male from a pair of Greylag Goose trying to cross the busy A29 at Rowhook with their single gosling on 30th May turned out to be colour ringed bird 13L, not seen for over three years. Having been originally ringed as an adult at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve in Kent on 25th June 2006, I spotted this bird three times at Warnham LNR on 11th Jan 2008, 25th Sep 2009 and 28th Dec 2009. It was also spotted at Walland Marsh in Kent on 10th Jan 2009, but the next and last sighting after mine was at Scotney Court Gravel Pit not far from Walland Marsh at the far eastern end of Sussex. Although Greylag Geese do move about a bit, this bird seems to keep changing its breeding and wintering sites.
Barn Owl
Although this was the worst year I know of for the breeding of this species, I still had four recoveries. The first was a nestling female from Kingsfold in 2012 which was found dead under a nest box in Warnham on 20th March just 3km away. Then in a nestbox at Faygate I controlled an adult male which was the sibling from the same nest in Kingsfold having paired up with a female originally ringed as a nestling in South Godstone, Surrey. But the fourth was a bit special to me as we retrapped an adult male at Leith Hill which I had originally ringed at Paynes Green as a nestling in 2007 whilst training and was the first Barn Owl I had ever ringed (below).
Blackcap and Chiffchaff
I don't get very many warbler recoveries and the two I got this year were both originally ringed elsewhere in Surrey. The first was a Blackcap that was ringed as a 1st year male in Worplesden on 22nd Sep 2010 and I caught in Rhododendron Wood, Leith Hill on 4th Jun and although this is just 18km away this bird has flown to at least southern Europe and back twice in between. The other was a Chiffchaff which was ringed as a juvenile in Ripley in July and caught at Duke's Warren, Leith Hill in September. These two movements are shown in the map below:
Goldcrest
Although the numbers were down for this species year I still had two recoveries. A 1st year female that I caught in Oct 2012 was found dead having hit a window in Romsey, Hampshire (82km away) on 15th Jan. The other recovery I caught in December and am awaiting details of where it was originally ringed.
Blue Tit
The large majority of Blue Tits don't move more than about 5km within their lifetime, although there are always a few that don't fit the mould. The four recoveries I had last year were all over 5km, three of which were caught at Rhododendron Wood, Leith Hill just over that distance. L991303 was ringed at Gomshall on 5th July as a juvenile and captured on 10th Oct 2011, 30th Dec 2012 and 8th and 15th Apr 2013 7km away. X398234 was ringed as a 1st year at Ewhurst on 28th Oct 2008 and caught on 30th Dec 2012 and 13th Jan 2013 6km away. Y746712 was ringed as an adult at Gomshall on 30th Oct 2012 and caught on 12th Aug and 8th Sep 2013 7km away. Blue Tits as a rule disperse as a 1st year to find breeding grounds and then stays around these grounds for the rest of its life, whereas this last bird seems to have dispersed as an adult.
The fourth recovery was a juvenile ringed in my Warnham garden on 9th Sep 2012 and caught on 12th Feb 2013 at Queen Mary Reservoir 37km away!
These are all shown in the map below:
Siskin
This was my best year for this species with 19 recoveries, a number of these were very local recoveries, but the map below shows all that were over 20km away.
Two of these are worthy of further comment. X403389 was ringed at Slaley, Northumberland on 5th May 2009 as a 2nd calendar year male on breeding grounds, then caught on 30th Nov 2011 at Duke's Warren (winter grounds) and again here on 1st Mar 2013 showing winter site fidelity. The other is L247289 which was ringed on St Mary's, Isle of Scilly on 17th Oct 2010 as a 1st year female and caught at Duke's Warren on 29th Mar 2013. This is interesting because not only has it come from an unusual direction compared to all other recoveries, but also it was ringed on the Isles of Scilly, where this species is scarcely seen. In contrast, considering the large numbers of Siskins that are ringed in East Anglia I am yet to have a recovery or capture from there.
Lesser Redpoll
This is by far the species with the most recoveries and from all across the British Isles.
None of these were of any particular note, but in the last three years I have had recoveries from 26 different British counties and two to Belgium.
Common Redpoll
A single recovery of a bird ringed at Duke's Warren, Leith Hill as a 2nd calendar year on 9th Jan 2012 which was then caught at Sharnbrook in Bedfordshire as an adult male on 19th Apr 2013.
In addition, I got late news that a 1st year that was ringed at Duke's Warren on 21st Oct 2011 was caught on 11th Jan 2012 at Masnuy-Saint-Jean, Hainaut in Belgium. This was the first record of a Britsh ringed Common Redpoll to be recovered in Belgium.
