Redpoll exodus

Lesser orangepoll

Last year GRG achieved our highest ever ringing total for redpoll, with 3837 lesser and 19 common redpoll ringed. Most were caught in spruce plantations in October and early November. There were exceptionally large flocks present in the region, demonstrated by over 1500 being ringed at the same site over the course of four days.  

We were hoping for a repeat of that this autumn, and at first it looked promising. 106 redpoll were ringed on 3^rd August, which was a great total for that time of year, and we continued to have reasonable numbers into September. But by mid-October, the time we normally start to have our largest catches, there was barely any to be found! Sites where last year flocks numbered in the thousands were completely devoid of redpolls.

Lesser goldpoll

The mystery of where they’d gone was quickly answered, with ringers in southern England reporting they were experiencing record catches of the species. This was further confirmed by a slew of controls, 19 of which were recaptures by English ringers, and one which impressively had its ring read in the field on Helgoland, Germany.

The map below shows the location of the birds we’ve had controlled over the past couple of months. We've not had any reported this week, but that may be due to the persistent winds we’ve been having making conditions for ringing unsuitable! Based on the concentration on the south east coast it looks like many of the redpolls may not spend the winter in the UK, and we are expecting recaptures to be reported from the continent soon.

What caused the redpolls to clear out of NE Scotland is unclear. The spruce crop was poor compared to last autumn, yet there was plenty of birch for them to feed on as they’ve done in the previous years. Hopefully when the winds die down ringers down south can get out in field again, and we can understand more about their movements this winter. 

Euan Ferguson

Redpoll madness!

Lesser redpoll

In 2016 we achieved the highest ever redpoll total for Grampian Ringing Group, with 2280 lesser redpolls and 45 common redpolls ringed. Most of these birds was caught at two birch woodland sites at Drumoak and Banchory, almost entirely during October and November.

Foreign travels stopped us ringing redpolls the past couple of years, but this autumn we were back in the country and keen to have another go. We started catching in mid-September and through October, averaging 70 redpolls a session. It was the end of October and beginning of November that saw our peak numbers in 2016, so we took a couple of weeks off work and hoped that time of year would deliver again.

Common and lesser redpoll

The first catches at Drumoak and Banchory were quieter than expected, with 83 and 66 redpolls caught. Perhaps there wasn’t the big numbers around this autumn like in 2016? However, some intel from Al Young in Moray suggested the redpolls were feeding on spruce this year instead of birch. On 29^th October we tried a new site with plenty of spruce at Pitfichie Forest, which resulted in a record catch of 343 redpolls. Interestingly this was exactly the same date we’d had our previous highest catch in 2016 (324 redpolls).

We then tried another new spruce site at Durris which saw the record catch keep being surpassed! Over 4 days we ringed 1580 redpolls at the site, with the peak being 510 birds ringed on 05^th November. There was clearly enormous numbers of redpolls in the area as amazingly we didn’t have a single same site retrap during these sessions.

Lesser and common redpoll

And then just like that it was all over! 9^th November saw only 42 redpolls ringed, and the following weekend only a measly 7 were caught. Multiple sites have been checked but it appears that the large flocks of redpolls have cleared out of the region. Interestingly English ringers have noted a lack of any significant redpoll numbers down south this autumn, so perhaps they will have a deluge of redpolls hitting them soon. 

We ringed 2850 lesser redpolls over the autumn, and with Al and Skitts getting some good catches too, the group total for the year sits on over 3800. Common redpoll numbers were down on 2016, with only 16 caught compared to 45. This may be do with the prevalent easterly winds we had in 2016 which we’ve lacked this autumn.

The map below shows movements from birds ringed in 2016 (including one to the south of France, right at the edge of the lesser redpoll's range). We look forward to seeing where the birds ringed this year end up. 

  

As well as to understand their movements, the main reason we're ringing so many redpolls is a study we're conducting on their poll colours. As anyone who's ringed a fair few redpolls will know, they don't all have red polls! In fact perhaps only half of them are red, with a range of shades of yellow, gold, orange, brown, pink and purple. We have detected around 40 distinct colours of poll, and hope to publish our findings soon. 

Euan and Carmen Ferguson