Bird Ringing
The BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) started bird ringing 100 years ago, in 1909. To date some 36 million birds have been ringed, providing a unique insight into the birds of Britain and Ireland. Bird ringing helped us discover that Swallows make the extraordinary migration to South Africa (disproving the throry that they spend the winter hibernating at the bottom of ponds.), yet we still don't know where House martins spend the winter.
It has provided such facts as:-
- The oldest known bird in the British Isles in a Manx shearwater that was first ringed at Bardsey in North ales in 1957, and has been recorded every year since.
- An Arctic tern was ringed in th UK and then found in Australia - 18,056 kms away.
- An osprey was ringed near Strathclyde, which then turned up in the stomach of a crocodile in the Gambia.
- A mute swan was killed by tigers at Chester Zoo.
- A Reed warbler found dead in a spiders web.
The book is a complete guide to bird ringing - The history, the how and why, what it can tell us, and what the facts mean for the conservation of birds.
Cats are the main culprit.
The BTO receives reports of around 14,000 birds with rings every year, providing an invaluable source of information on the latest trends in bird conservation. I think that one of the telling statistics is the causes of death. For all those people who get very upset when birds are caught in oil spills, (5,600 records), collisions with windows (13,800) or collisions with overhead wires (9,400), all these numbers are dwarfed by the 41,900 birds killed by domestic cats.
Bird Ringing is available from BTO on-line sales at www.bto.org or by phone on 01842 750050.
The book costs £7.50 + P & P (£6 until the end of December 2008)
The map, taken from the book, shows the recoveries of three species, all ringed in the UK. Swallows are red dots, Manx Shearwaters are brown, and Fieldfare are blue.
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