The benefits of bird ringing in three sessions

Although I have recently been busy finishing-up my PhD thesis, I have had a few opportunities to do some BTO-licensed bird ringing over the last few weeks. These sessions have been really enjoyable, and have highlighted to me three core benefits of bird ringing.

First, during a session at a new meadow site just within Oxford ring road, we caught many summer visitors to the UK, including several sedge and reed warblers. This amazingly included a reed warbler which had previously been ringed as an adult in 2019. Given the migratory behaviour of this species, this means that the bird had made the 100s-of-kilometres journey to/from Africa over twenty times already! This really highlights the incredible potential of bird ringing to further our understanding of the survival and movement patterns of long distant migrants such as this individual.

Second, although I am not undertaking the full field season this year, I have spent a couple of days in Wytham helping the current fieldworkers. Getting to ring a few blue tit broods while simultaneously wrapping up my PhD thesis has reminded me of the value of bird ringing from the perspective of linking many generations of individuals to gain a better understanding of long-term changes within a population and patterns of inheritance.

Finally, I recently helped at a ringing demonstration for a local environmental group. Here, we got to show those who attended the wonderful diversity of species across the site, which made me realise how sharing these types of data collection with local communities can encourage people's appreciation of the natural world, promoting conservation of key habitats even in urban settings.