Hi Tweets,

Thought you might find this post about ringing (banding) offa the UKbirdnet
interesting.

M

>James Cracknell <james at landguard.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>> [...]
>> this "someone told me" business, this can lead to tales
>
>When I wrote "a ringer once told me that Bullfinches usually die when
>handled" perhaps I should have been more precise.
>
>A warden of a UK bird observatory, with many years ringing experience, told
>me catagorically that Bullfinches "usually die" when handled. This was in a
>conversation about stress to birds which had just spent the night flying
>across the sea only to be caught in a mist net.
>
>This is patently untrue. As is the story that birds which have just crossed
>the North Sea are in some way knackered- utter rubbish! Analyses of the
>existing ringing data will tell us that many birds are not only fit and
>well when they arrive, they are quite capable (and have been recorded)
>flying all the way back again! However when birds are chased around for a
>few days by well-meaning twitchers, preventing them from feeding, they do
>tend to get a bit on the unfit side....
>By the way- the only way of determining the condition of migrants is by
>ringing- observatories take fat and muscle wastage scores of migrants.
>
>Are all ringing deaths recorded?
>
>No, they are not.
>
>How many birds die as a result of ringing?
>
>Proportionately miniscule numbers compared to birds which die from other
>causes; cats; windows; guns; loss of habitat; ignorant policies made up by
>councils and government without the benifit of good solid ringing data to
>advise them. The benefit to Bullfinches of their population dynamics being
>recorded far outweighs any accidental death to a small number of
>individuals. Remember- licenses can be and are issued to fruit growers to
>shoot Bullfinches. I should say also that I have never had a Bullfinch die
>on me (OK, I haven't ringed that many- maybe 30 altogether).
>
>Are the figures correlated by site? By ringer?
>
>There aren't any figures. But unless ringers never ever ring with anyone
>else (I don't know anyone like this) then their methods are subject to peer
>pressure. However, deaths to e.g. Bullfinches in the manner described is
>entirely accidental and not a result of individual ringers' methods.
>
>I think we should be told.
>
>You have been! Lets put an end to this carping on about ringing being
>damaging to the birds. Waken up to the fact that there would be a HUGE hole
>in the conservation effort of this country and many others if ringing did
>not take place. Instead of thinking about one poor little deceased
>Bullfinch, think about the devastation to our farmland bird population
>caused by changes in farming methods; think about the devastation caused to
>our raptor populations by persecution at the hands of gaming interests;
>think about the devastation to the wader populations passing through our
>estuaries caused by nitrification run-off from agriculture; think about the
>potential devastation which might be caused by extreme changes in our
>climate in the next few years; that enough to be going on with? All of
>these problems are vastly helped by the long hours some volunteer ringers
>put in to investigating them.
>
>Paul Doyle
>Ringer and supporter of the BTO and any other research program which might
>improve the lot of our bird populations.
>
>
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