The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Please keep a look out for any colour ringed Stonechats in South Lincs this winter and pass the details on as described below. Hugh Dorrington

Hello Hugh,

Keith Herber of the NNRG was kind enough to pass on your details and suggest I contact you.

I’m a survey volunteer at Dersingham Bog and since 2012, I’ve been involved in the colour-ringing project for Stonechats based at the reserve, which is run in collaboration with Natural England, the BTO and NNRG, along with other site volunteers. The project aims to survey and colour ring breeding Stonechats on Dersingham Bog and record adults and juveniles seen outside the breeding season, both on the reserve and elsewhere in Norfolk.

We are trying to raise awareness of the project and encourage birders to report sightings of colour-ringed Stonechats and we would appreciate any help you may be able to give in that regard. It would be greatly appreciated if you could perhaps mention the project or post the website link in any newsletter or email updates you may send to your BTO survey team, or any other forum which you think may be suitable? Any other suggestions for possible outlets would also be welcome.

We’re conscious that as birds disperse from Dersingham Bog, they are just as likely to turn left along the Wash coast into Lincolnshire as they are to head north up the Wash. We’ve already had reports of our ringed birds inland as far as Thetford, as well as the North Norfolk coast, so they have already shown they can turn up at considerable distances from their natal site.

The number of breeding pairs of Stonechats on the reserve has risen dramatically in recent years, resulting in high numbers of ringed birds dispersing from the site. 2016 was a very successful season with 13 pairs producing 95 juveniles, all of which were ringed. This follows on from 2015 with 10 pairs producing 51 ringed juveniles.

The colour-ring combination used on all Stonechat nestlings at Dersingham Bog is a grey plastic ring over a metal ring on the right leg, with two colour rings on the left leg. Since breeding numbers have increased, so many young Stonechats have been ringed that the order of the rings on the right leg had to be changed in order to give us more options. So from 2016 onwards, some broods sport a metal ring over a grey plastic ring on the right leg, a reverse of the original order, as well as a variable two colour combination on the left leg.

A new website has just been launched which gives further details of the project and provides an easy way of reporting sightings of colour-ringed birds. https://northwestnorfolkstonechats.wordpress.com/

Another avenue for reporting sightings is via the Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/NWNfkStonechats

or direct via email - mailto: northwestnorfolkstonechats@gmail.com

Many thanks.

Regards,
Irene Boston