MULTIPLE RESIGHTINGS OF COLOUR-RINGED WAXWINGS ALREADY

 As the Waxwings continue to move through the UK (and beyond!) we are delighted to have already received 50 distant (>50km) colour-ringed sightings of birds from our Orkney and NE Scotland colour-ringing/tracking project. 

A huge thank you to all ringers, birders, photographers and observers who have gone to the bother of reporting their sightings to us. It is very much appreciated. Many have been from photographs, some discovered afterwards whilst sifting through them at home on the camera or computer. 

All are very exciting and of great interest to us and it gets even more exciting and interesting when the same colour-ringed bird turns up again elsewhere. We have had 7 of these multiple resightings already this winter, featured below, and another, not a multiple resighting but worthy of mention, has already returned to the continent, resighted in Denmark on 18^th December, our earliest ever returner.

MAP OF WAXWING MULTIPLE COLOUR-RING SIGHTINGS UP TO 29/12/23

Apologies but there are too many observers to list here for the sightings. Massive thank you to all.

KEY         XXX = Colour ring combination (eg RYW = Red over Yellow over White)

1              OOY Saltcoates, Ayrshire           13/11
                         Gargrave, North Yorkshire 12/12
                         Barnoldswick, Lancashire  16/12
                         Clitheroe, Lancashire         17/12

2              WOO Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent                          8/12 – 11/12
                          Severalls Ind. Park, Colchester, Essex  23/12

3              RYW Gainsborough, Lincolnshire         17/12
                          Newton Aycliffe, County Durham 24/12

4              BOB Severalls Ind. Park, Colchester, Essex 15/12 - 17/12
                         Halisham, East Sussex                         26/12

5              LNW Bakewell, Derbyshire      19/12
                         Sefton Street, Liverpool  26/12

6             RWO Musselburgh                   21/11
                         Sedbergh, Cumbria       11/12

7              RYR Rendlesham, Suffolk      11/12
                         Farnham, Surrey            29/12

 So these multiple resightings (and the bird to Denmark) have pretty much covered all compass points on their travels through the UK, and beyond, so far in search of berries. And it’s only just past Xmas! It will be very interesting to see what they do in the next few months.

                  BNW 18/12 Langeland, Denmark.  Henrik Knudsen

                                                                                

                   OOY 12/12 Gargrave, North Yorkshire.  Annie Shadrake

                   WOO 23/12 Colchester.  Dan Mills

                 RYW 17/12 Gainsborough, Lincs.  Joe Downing

BOB 26/12 Hailsham, East Sussex.  Maria McGrath

LNW 19/12 Hassop Station, Derbyshire.  Andy Gregory

                            RWO 21/11 Musselburgh.  Len Hunter

                     RYR 11/12 Rendlesham, Suffolk.  Jim Mountain

We have been asking observers about “their” flock sizes and what berries the Waxwings have been feeding on which might give us a wee clue to their future plans. The berries of course are the critical thing in the Waxwing’s winter life and govern the distances they have to travel. They have been on quite a variety of rowans and hawthorns mostly so far by looks of things.

Back up here in Aberdeen we’re in a wee bit of a huff really as the Waxwings have all but gone. The critical rowan berries which they prefer to feed on had a rather patchy crop up here and critically there weren’t enough to see the birds through to the transition to Tree Cotoneaster which usually happens about Xmas. The Tree Cotoneaster has a very good crop so we are intrigued to see if the Waxwings might have a “berry memory bank” (ooh there’s a project for some keen student?!) and some return north to capitalise on this food supply.

Thank you all very much again for all your great sightings, photographs and interesting observations. Keep up the good work. We’ll post up a map of all December’s colour ring sightings and some more of your great photographs in early January.

Oh and worthy of further discussion will be the 2 colour ringed birds resighted at the same site at Hassop Station, near Bakewell, Derbyshire in the same week and another 2 at the same site at Ipswich, Suffolk in the same week, all ringed on the same day in Elgin.

Have a Happy New Year.

Raymond Duncan and Grampian Ringing Group