Big Al Posted January 31, 2013 Report Share Posted January 31, 2013 Gents....a Silly question for you.... What do you with the rings? Mark Mine are on my dog whistle lanyard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guy baxendale Posted January 31, 2013 Report Share Posted January 31, 2013 Paul - thats cool - have you had many before that? Hello Guy! Not the same name as used on the other place. 4 ringed mallard (ducks) and one ringed teal duck shot between 3 guns on an Essex fresh marsh flight two Sundays ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penelope Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 Paul - thats cool - have you had many before that? No I haven't, they were the first, although my dad has shot a pink with a ring in Scotland and a Puna Teal (escapee) on another Essex fresh marsh about 12 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 (edited) For some species of duck its not unusual for a group of them to stay togeather in a winter flock. There have several times when I have recaught duck togeather that have been ringed at the same site togeather a year or two before. Wigeon , mallard and tufted often mix with the same group each winter. I have caught the same wigeon comming back into the same trap for 6-7 years in a row in some cases almost weekly through the same winter. On the other hand teal once ringed are rarely ever recaught at the same site again. They seem to visit a new area every year. I once ringed 2 cock teal caught on the same day in Norfolk and shot on the same day , but 25 miles apart in Finland the next September. Not ducks its true , but I once caught 12 long tailed tits togeather in the same mist net that had all been caught togeather 20 miles away a month before hand by another ringer. Edited February 1, 2013 by anser2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penelope Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 For some species of duck its not unusual for a group of them to stay togeather in a winter flock. There have several times when I have recaught duck togeather that have been ringed at the same site togeather a year or two before. Wigeon , mallard and tufted often mix with the same group each winter. I have caught the same wigeon comming back into the same trap for 6-7 years in a row in some cases almost weekly through the same winter. On the other hand teal once ringed are rarely ever recaught at the same site again. They seem to visit a new area every year. I once ringed 2 cock teal caught on the same day in Norfolk and shot on the same day , but 25 miles apart in Finland the next September. Not ducks its true , but I once caught 12 long tailed tits togeather in the same mist net that had all been caught togeather 20 miles away a month before hand by another ringer. Didn't Annabel, a pinkfoot goose turn up at Scott's pens at the lighthouse around the same time each for 4 or 5 years, often bringing a small number of geese (that years goslings) with her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 (edited) Yes that is true , but geese have very different lyfestyles to ducks. Geese stay as a family unit from hatching until the start of the next breeding season and sometimes longer. For a goose migration is learnt from its parents. Which is why unlike north American canada geese ours do not migrate to the Arctic. Their parents originating in captivity several hundred years ago lost the migratory tradition as they physicaly could not as they were penned in. So unlike canadas in the USA our birds do not know the Arctic exists and for them the world ends at the North of Scotland. Though there are signs of a change as Norwegean and Swedish canadas have to leave in winter because of the snow and cold and though most move down to Denmark and Germany a few ringed birds are starting to be found in Scotland in recent years. So a migration can be lost , but also new migrations can develope given time. For a duck migration is more instinct. Ducks are much more indipendant than geese. The drake usualy deserts the female once she starts to sit on eggs. In turn as the ducklings start to fledge the female goes into wing moult and is grounded as the youngsters start to fly and at this time the family breaks up.As the drakes leave the sitting females they band togeather in one sex groups and moult much earlier than the females. Hence in September a high percentage of wigeon in the UK are adult males. As the juveniles start to fly they start to migrate leaving the later moulting females to follow a month or so later. However there will always be the odd non breeding female turning up with any of the previous groups. But in some species of duck like wigeon it does seem that birds that have been in the same wintering flock rejoin the same group the following winter. But this may not hold true for some other species such as teal or pochard.These latter two species seem to wander to different wintering areas every year and retrapps at the same site are uncommon.Wigeon seem to have their own personal wintering and breeding grounds. For example out of the thousands of wigeon I have ringed the majority follow a route through Norfolk in autumn with some staying the whole winter while others move to the Ouse washes and then north to the Ribble , Scotland and Ireland. I have never had a recovery south of a line from North Wales , to West Kent and over the English Channel west of the River Seine. Despite there being plenty of wigeon along the South coast of England they obviously come from a different part of their breeding range. Likewise all my breeding season recoveries of female wigeon have come from between the Ob and Yenesi rivers in Centrial Siberia despite wigeon breeding across Sweden, Finlland and Western Russia. The Norfolk wintering birds overfly these areas to breed in Siberia some 4000-5000 km to the east. A friend who catches wigeon in Yorkshire has had most of his breeding season recoveries in Finland. So we must look at the wintering UK wigeon being made up of several populations doubtless with a some interchange between them. Which probably explanes why some report shooting a high percentage of young , while others have few youngsters in the bag as they are breeding across a huge area all likely to have different weather in spring and different breeding successes. Edited February 1, 2013 by anser2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guy baxendale Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 Fascinating - thanks for that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pole Star Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 Fascinating - thanks for that Yes & lets hope all those who recover rings do the right thing & send in the numbers instead of just keeping them as trophies ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Al Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 Yes & lets hope all those who recover rings do the right thing & send in the numbers instead of just keeping them as trophies ! I did both. I sent in the numbers and kept the rings as trophies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pole Star Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 I did both. I sent in the numbers and kept the rings as trophies. Well there is nothing wrong with that Big Al ! good on you . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aister Posted February 2, 2013 Report Share Posted February 2, 2013 (edited) There is a flock of 48 greylags all within 100 yards of my front door (they know the season is finished ha ha) one of them has a neck collar and a leg ring. Bright orange colour with the letters DNJ on it, and there is also another two greylags with two leg rings each. Both have the usual metal ring on one leg and on the other leg they both have orange leg rings one with the letters UZ and the other YB. I couldn't get pics of the leg rings as the grass covered them up. Sorry the pics are not great as the birds are about 80 yards away and I don't have a great camera. Edited February 2, 2013 by aister Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aister Posted February 2, 2013 Report Share Posted February 2, 2013 Here is a pic of all three together, sorry again about quality but you can just see in the first pic the one with the neck collar and the other two with leg rings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.