Colour-ringing of Upland and Lowland Stonechats in Grampian

 During 2022 Stonechats have been colour-ringed in Grampian in an attempt to find out a bit more about their survival in relation to movements and territory habitats throughout the year.

Ringing has taken place at two main locations; Glen Dye, the upland site (300m asl) and Forvie National Nature Reserve (NNR) the lowland site (50m asl). As of 21/11/2022 a total of 107 Stonechats have been ringed as part of this project.

The colour-ringing scheme involves adding a white coded ring above the normal BTO metal ring on the right tarsus and two coloured rings on the left tarsus.

In Glen Dye, most birds were trapped by mist nets, whilst at Forvie, all captures were executed by spring traps. Ninety-two Stonechats were ringed in the Glen Dye area and 15 were ringed at Forvie and other lowland sites. Juveniles made up the majority of birds trapped in Glen Dye, with only two adults being caught there. Most birds at lowland sites were seen during autumn and noted to be in pairs.

So far, only a few birds have been resighted or recaptured and all bar one were observed near their ringing location. The exception to this was a surprising record of a juvenile male, ringed in Glen Dye on 19 July 2022 and photographed at Rhoon, near Rotterdam, The Netherlands, on 11 November 2022, a dispersal distance of approximately 727 km.

Of all 55,563 Stonechats ringed in the UK up to the end of 2021, only 49 have been recovered abroad, mainly Spain, but none of these were in the Netherlands. This is therefore the first record of a Stonechat, ringed in the UK and seen in the Netherlands.

Stonechat WN(A),M /RN photographed in the Netherlands 11/11/2022

Stonechat WN(A),M /RN when ringed in Glen Dye 19/07/2022

Please keep an eye on your local Stonechats and report any sightings and colour-ringed birds in the usual way.

Moray Souter

Ring ouzel resightings from Glen Clunie

 On 25 September 2022, a colour ringed ring ouzel was photographed at a headland near Santander, northern Spain, by Guillermo Lazaro. This bird had been ringed as a chick on 17 May from a brood of 5 (ring number LL21463) in Glen Clunie by Innes Sim and Alys Perry, as part of a project aimed at finding out more about their migration journeys to and from their winter quarters by fitting adults with GPS tags. 

Ringed as pullus in Glen Clunie May 2022, sighted in Santander Northern Spain September 2022

It was the smallest of the 5 chicks, but not a runt, and all chicks fledged around 21 May. Both adults were unringed initially, but both were caught and colour ringed, and the male fitted with a tag. The same pair had a second nest around 300m away and reared a brood of 3, all of which fledged around 2 July. Both adults were retrapped and the female fitted with a tag. Two previous sightings of chicks from Glen Clunie, both in 2013, were on 15 and 27 October in Isles of Scilly and Portland, Dorset, respectively. And data from 2 tagged birds in 2018 showed that they left Glen Clunie on 2 and 5 October. So, this bird seems to have left the UK unusually early.

 

Ringed in Glen Clunie in July 2013, sighted at Portland, Dorset October 2013

Ringed in Glen Clunie as a chick in June 2013, sighted on the Scilly Isles October 2013

Twenty adult ring ouzels were fitted with GPS tags in Glen Clunie in 2022. These tags were programmed to take a fix once per day between 1 September 2022 and 30 April 2023. Each fix should be accurate to around 10m, but the bird has to be retrapped in order to access the data. We obtained high quality data from 2 tagged birds which were retrapped in 2019, so fingers crossed that we can catch any returning adults in 2023.