17 January 2010

A January whitethroat caught on Sunday 17 January by Jon Avon is causing considerable interest.

Jersey Control is a first!

A goldfinch ringed in Kingsteignton, South Devon on 20 Nov 2007 was later controlled on 10 February 2008 at Woodlands Farm, St Helier, Jersey. This garden ringed bird was one of 41 caught and ringed in November 2007. The young female (ring no V766279) was recaptured 82 days later on Jersey, having travelled a distance of 183km. It was assumed that the bird was ringed whilst migrating south through Devon in the autumn and then recaptured on Jersey, when returning north in the spring.

In the year (2009) that the BTO celebrates 100 years of ringing in Great Britain, it is appropriate that our Society should finally get a ringing section on its web site.

As a Devon organisation, we can be proud of the fact that we have been a part of this important research activity since the beginning. It was recorded in British Birds (Vol. III 1909-10) that a Curlew ringed in Devon in June 1909 was recovered on Dartmoor in October that same year.