First Kite sighting away from Hertfordshire in Suffolk 31st March 2019
Excellent news from David Tomlinson in Suffolk today where 4F was photographed over his garden. This is our first Kite away from Hertfordshire despite one being sighted near Luton however the codes on the Luton bird were not able to be read as it was soaring too high.
4F was ringed from a spring trap in August last year as a young bird so could have wandered some distance before capture in Hertfordshire. Many thanks to David Tomlinson who photographed the bird and noticed the tag on downloading the pictures.
4F at ringing in August 2018
Photgraphs of 4F on 31st March 2019 in Suffolk taken by David Tomlinson
Map and deatils at: http://www.southern-colour-ringing-group.org.uk/index.php/recoveries/red-kite/bird/GBT-GV77597
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kite | 0 | 0 |
| Buzzard |
Red Kite spring trapping 4th August 2018
Two Red Kites today one new bird (wing tagged 4F) and one retrap bird (1F) which was one of the pulli ringed back in June. Great to prove fledging from one of our nests. Thanks to Shaun Harvey for the photos
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kite | 1 | 1 |
| Buzzard |
Kites and Buzzards Weekend 16th and 17th June 2018
First wing tagged Kites for the project
A good weekend with six nests climbed by our excellent climber Richard Fenna who was fantastic getting to the nests to enable us to ring six Buzzards and four Red Kites this year. We wing tagged our first Red Kites with all four receiving yellow wing tags which we hope will generate some more sightings as these birds fledge and disperse. Thanks to all the team and people who turned out over the weekend and supported the efforts to enable us to ring a good sample of birds from the nests found. Only one nest could not be reached due to a partially dead trunk which we were not happy with so we decided to abort the climb on safety grounds. Never the less an excellent total of six Buzzards and four Red Kites marked this weekend.
Young Buzzard
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kite | 4 | 4 |
| Buzzard |
Methods
The Southern Colour Ringing Group rings Red Kite and Buzzard pulli (young in the nest) and traps full grown birds using large spring traps baited with carrion at a site in North Hertfordshire.
Nests are climbed up to by a contract climber and young removed to ring. We also fit coloured wing tags with various year codes allocated to us by the national co-ordinator which allows the birds to be relocated without needing to be recaptured. There are many more bird-watchers looking for colour-marked birds, so this greatly improves our chances of understanding the movements of the birds we are studying. Currently we are fitting Yellow tags with Black letters to Kites and Black tags with White letters to Buzzards.
If you see a bird with one of our wing tags, please send details (ring-code, date, location, species) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Ringing totals
2016 year totals
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kite | 7 | 0 |
| Buzzard |
2017 year totals
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kite | 2 | 0 |
| Buzzard |
2018 year totals
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kite | 5 | 5 |
| Buzzard | 0 | 0 |
2019 year totals
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kite | 0 | 0 |
| Buzzard |
Grand totals
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kite | 14 | 5 |
| Buzzard | 0 | 0 |