Ringing (or ‘banding’ as it’s known in North America) is used to understand the migration of birds and to track their populations. Mist nets are used to catch the birds, and ringers receive several years of training to ensure that the birds can be trapped, ringed and released without harm to their welfare. A small alloy ring is placed on the bird’s leg; it contains an address to which the ring (but not the bird!) should be returned if it is found dead.

Bird ringing at Paxton

Much has been discovered about birds by watching and counting them, but such methods rarely allow birds to be identified as individuals. However, through bird ringing we can monitor bird populations, movements and longevity in order to try to understand more about bird ecology – something that pure monitoring alone may not achieve. Bird ringers receive several years of training to ensure that the birds can be trapped, ringed and released without harm. Placing a lightweight, uniquely numbered, metal ring around a bird’s leg provides a reliable and harmless method of identifying birds as individuals. Each ring also has an address so that anyone finding a ringed bird can help by reporting where and when it was found and what happened to it. This information will be kept in a database by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) (www.bto.org), passed onto the original bird ringer and the original capture information passed to the person who re-found the bird.

Bird ringing originally took place at the Reserve during the breeding seasons of 2000 and 2001 as part of the national Constant Effort Site (CES) scheme run by the BTO. This scheme provides information on population size, breeding success and survival rates of bird species living in scrub and wetland habitats. It is run at a large number of sites across Britain and seeks to monitor bird populations and species that are poorly covered by other census methods. Mist-nets are erected in the same positions and for the same length of time, during twelve visits spread between early May and late August each year, to allow for comparable data. The data collected is fed into a wider analysis at a regional and national scale and has been successfully used to monitor changes in adult survival and productivity; see the BTO website for more details www.bto.org/ringing/ringinfo/ces/index.htm.   

After a break of six years, bird ringing re-commenced at Paxton Pits in May 2007 with the agreement of the Paxton Pits LNR management committee.  This was again run as a BTO CES project. The ringing site comprises dry scrub with reed fringed lakes alongside, perfect for warblers and other woodland species which are the main scientific focus of the CE scheme. Further studies during the autumn and winter period paid particular attention to autumn migration of Blackcaps through the site and wintering numbers of more localised species. Table 1 below highlights the total number of birds caught between years.

Table 1. The total number of new birds ringed at Paxton Pits

One of the most interesting aspects of bird ringing for many people is the dispersion or migration movements that birds make. Recoveries are birds that have been ringed elsewhere and re-trapped at Paxton. We know through ringing activities that Blackcaps pass through Paxton in good numbers during September and October and our ringing recoveries indicate that they are travelling great distances, with birds having arrived from Caithness in 2001, Ayrshire, Norfolk and Kent

Also reported is a juvenile robin that dispersed locally only to be found dead near Bedford and the only Sedge Warbler caught in 2008 was recovered at Titchfield Haven near Southampton.

*Full ringing report for 2009: MS Word (158kb ) / pdf (81kb)