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ith the furthest being 20 2km this again maybe suggests birds were moving around more in 2025 perhaps searching for better breeding sites 2025 movements between breeding sites 2024 movements between breeding sites posted by mark grantham at 08 52 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels barn owl 13 april 2025 cornish kittiwakes coming back home it s that time of year again where we start to turn our attention to seabirds with kittiwakes starting to settle on cliffs always a lure an afternoon cliff top trip to parc trammel cove near porthleven today was surprisingly productive especially as this is normally a site we cover from the sea after a short kayak paddle the distance from the clifftop really stretched the nikon coolpix p1000 but we managed to read seven of our own rings and two french ringed birds rwm yon was ringed as a chick in france in 2013 and was seen at trewavas variously in 2018 2020 then at parc trammel since it s now paired with j7 ringed as a chick locally in 2018 we managed to steal back two of our birds as well as kj bred unsuccessfully in co kerry see pics here in 2023 and vt bred in france in 2021 and 2022 many of the other birds we saw hadn t been seen for a few years so these records really do help build our picture of how these enigmatic birds are faring ev was ringed as an adult locally in 2015 kj returning home pk was ringed as a chick locally in 2015 posted by mark grantham at 20 10 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels kittiwake 13 november 2024 2024 barn owl update we thought that 2023 was an odd year for barn owls but 2024 seemed to continue the trend the very wet spring was perhaps a boom for early grass growth with a consequent increase in vole numbers so 2024 saw our highest ever average clutch size 5 4 with three clutches of eight eggs being found this didn t necessarily feed through into large broods though with the average 3 2 very much in line with the last couple of years 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 sites visited 41 47 64 85 87 106 93 112 127 150 unoccupied 11 12 23 34 36 43 35 34 29 66 occupied no breeding 7 8 5 4 3 4 5 4 10 4 average clutch size where observed 4 6 4 6 5 3 5 2 4 7 4 6 4 5 4 5 4 6 5 4 average brood size where observed 3 5 2 8 3 0 3 3 3 0 3 2 2 8 3 1 3 2 3 2 chicks ringed 70 47 90 132 119 177 133 189 193 209 adults ringed recaught 17 8 14 9 21 14 18 14 16 15 22 17 19 17 20 22 30 24 22 35 the most productive area seemed to be penwith average of 4 0 chicks per brood with the lowest being roseland 2 4 and east cornwall 2 9 for only the second year we also recaught more ringed adults than we ringed new birds which is very satisfying as for movements the map below shows the origins of birds recaught as breeding birds in nestboxes during the 2024 season as expected most of these is short distance dispersal of young birds on average 8 5km but ranging from 1 7km up to 37 2km this only relates to recaptures though but we unfortunately also hear of many of our birds found dead in 2024 11 of our birds were reported dead including three hit by cars and one that hit wires posted by mark grantham at 19 26 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels barn owl 29 may 2024 barn owl throuple and other odd goings on over the long bank holiday weekend we had a chance to make our first visits to barn owl nestboxes across part of our patch it was a long slog with plenty of sites covered and overall it seems to be an early season with several broods of good sized chicks and even some not too far off ringing age but of more interest were some of the 28 adults caught over the weekend just eight were new unringed birds which had some surprising histories overall there were plenty of short movements which is what we d expect from dispersing juveniles but you can see from the map below that these birds generally don t go too far the longest movement of the weekend was a bird ringed as a chick in 2023 near probus and now residing in a new box put up at the national trust offices on the roseland the strangest happenings were saved for the lizard though on the expected end of the spectrum was the new pairing at one site with both of the pair ringed locally as chicks in 2022 and 2023 in the middle of the spectrum was a breeding female ringed near the helford river in 2020 then recaught breeding down near goonhilly downs in 2022 was then back up near the helford to breed in 2023 and now breeding in another box near goonhilly downs again this year below so four sites in five years the far end of the weird spectrum though was at another site near the helford where the nestbox camera showed two birds in the box but we could also hear chicks hissing on a nearby ledge as we put a ladder up to check the ledge a female flew off with the ledge home to an impressive seven chicks and an egg which may well still hatch we don t see many clutches of eight but this was our fourth of the weekend so who was in the box well one bird was the regular male that s been breeding there since 2020 but the other was a male ringed as a chick at a site 10km away in 2022 it ll be intriguing how this throuple get on and i must admit it s a first for me we couldn t have a barn owl post without a photo of a barn owl so here s a few of the various stages we found including just some of the largest larder we ve probably ever seen posted by mark grantham at 21 07 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels barn owl 8 april 2024 spanish black head and record cormorant numbers mullion island cormorants are already well into their breeding season now with some chicks almost ready to fledge our regular count from photos found a reciord 75 nests across the front of the island beating the 73 nests in 2021 and 72 in 1999 annoyingly photographs also showed an interloper in the colony this white or blue ringed bird is likely to be from wales or ireland but without being able to read the ring we ll never know we re currently investigating the options for remote pan tilt zoom cameras so watch this space the highlight from this weekend was a great sighting by shaun grose at hayle this black headed gull black ring n016 is actually the first spanish ringed bird to be seen in cornwall so quite special in fact only 30 have ever been seen in the uk so even at a national level this is notable it was ringed as an adult on the north coast of spain in january 2022 and was regular there until 11th march 2022 then seen again in march 2023 it returned in january 2024 and was last seen there on 26th february before being seen at hayle presumably it s breeding somewhere in the uk so one to look out for in future years posted by mark grantham at 08 37 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels black headed gull cormorant mullion island 5 december 2023 start of the winter chiffs it s not often we start our winter sewage works ringing in december but a couple of weekends of cold weather recently gave us the chance to venture out to a couple of sites gwennap is often our most productive site and a few hours last weekend saw us catch 101 birds including 59 chiffchaffs of these just four were birds ringed in previous winters predictably all at the site the highlight though was a smart grey wagtail which was already carrying a ring but not one of ours it had actually been ringed as one of three chicks in a nest in budock water in april 9km from gwennap the grey wagtails in the nest sam pitt miller this last weekend we were then able to get into brew sewage works near sennen right down in the far west it needs a calm day to net this exposed site so we have to make the most of the chance a short morning produced 61 birds of which 45 were chiffchaffs being so close to the autumn ringing site at nanjizal several of these were already ringed which gives a nice insight into the arrival timing of wintering birds more on that later most were from this same autumn but four were ringed at nanjizal in autumn 2022 so were returning birds brew is also our best site for siberian chiffchaffs tristis race of which we caught two both of which were quite subtle birds as below not the cold grey birds we sometimes see posted by mark grantham at 09 18 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels brew sewage works chiffchaff siberian chiffchaff 30 july 2023 barn owl 2023 update after one of the strangest springs weather wise the barn owl season seemed to be all over the place in 2023 we had regular sites unoccupied non breeding birds at some sites and some exceptionally late broods even now we have a few sites where we need to revisit to ring chicks with some new funding from the fipl project farming in protected landscapes managed by the cornwall aonb we are continuing to expand our monitoring this year onto the roseland peninsula with some new ringer recruits this year as well from the national trust our totals for the year were still quite impressive note we ve knocked off a couple of the early years to make space 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 sites visited 41 47 64 85 87 106 93 112 127 unoccupied 11 12 23 34 36 43 35 34 29 occupied no breeding 7 8 5 4 3 4 5 4 10 average clutch size where observed 4 6 4 6 5 3 5 2 4 7 4 6 4 5 4 5 4 6 average brood size where observed 3 5 2 8 3 0 3 3 3 0 3 2 2 8 3 1 3 2 chicks ringed 70 47 90 132 119 177 133 189 193 adults ringed recaught 17 8 14 9 21 14 18 14 16 15 22 17 19 17 20 22 30 24 unsurprisingly there was again some variety in the brood sizes across the area with the highest average again along the north coast fared the best though average brood size of 3 7 followed by the east of the county 3 5 compared to just 2 3 last year and then 3 0 3 1 elsewhere there seemed to be more movement between sites this year with one adult even on its third site in as many years the movements between bixes mostly birds ringed as chicks dispersing are shown here posted by mark grantham at 11 13 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels barn owl 14 july 2023 stormies on the move last month saw us able to mist net storm petrels down at porthgwarra on two nights catching a total of 119 birds of these 113 were unringed three were ringed by us in previous years and three were already wearing rings from elsewhere ringed on great saltee island co wexford three days earlier ringed on little saltee island co wexford in july 2022 ringed at torre de hercules in northern spain in july 2015 although since then it had managed to lose a foot a surprisingly regular phenomenon in storm petrels two birds we ringed on the same night were also recaught 21 days later on bardsey also on the same night another was then recaught on lundy island 29 days later alongside birds we d ringed here in july 2016 june 2017 and august 2020 which may well now be recruited as breeding birds on the island hopefully more stormies to come next week with a public ringing session likely to be on monday or tuesday so see here for details posted by mark grantham at 18 40 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels storm petrel 24 may 2023 strange goings on at mullion island we took the opportunity of a fine evening to do a quick great black backed gull nest count on mullion island yesterday quite bizarrely almost the first breeding bird we saw on landing was this canada goose which actually had a nest with six eggs nest with a view this is the first time we ve even seen canada goose on the island so quite a aurprise at the other end of the island we also found a second pair but with an apparently failed nest with just one egg found near the empty nest as for the gulls we covered most of the island bar two areas close to nesting shags with a final count of 64 nests 178 eggs chicks most were clutches of three eggs some of which were just hatching with just two small chicks seen surprisingly we only saw one colour ringed bird l dd2 which was a chick ringed on the island in 2018 since then it s been on its travels seen on ares beach in northern spain in january september and december 2020 and then at the nearby playa de santa cruz in january 2021 so nice to see it back breeding coincidentally on a non birding kayak earlier in the day but always with camera at hand we also recorded l dd1 near rosemullion head which is the first time it s been seen since being ringed on the island in 2018 posted by mark grantham at 18 28 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels great black backed gull mullion island 18 may 2023 herring gull and kittiwake wanderings we ve not blogged anything for a while but with a quiet winter devoid of siberian chiffchaffs there s not much to report but this week we ve had a couple of exciting colour ring sightings so thought we d share on 4th may we heard from the assistant warden at the newly accredited lundy bird observatory with news of one of our blue ringed herring gulls w 377 which was ringed as a chick on a roof at tregoniggie industrial estate falmouth in june 2020 it is a bit of an explorer though having been seen locally until august 2021 before being report on the french coast in february 2022 the next winter january 2023 it was reported from a french landfill site before returning to the coast in march it was last reported there on 6th april before swapping france for lundy w377 at stithians in august 2021 w377 at marais de suscinio in february 2022 catherine and michel marcaul newly moulted w377 back at marais de suscinio in march 2023 anne sophie hochet w377 on lundy in may 2023 luke marriner then on 15th may we had a report of one of our trewavas head kittiwakes seen pair bonding and attending the beginnings of a nest maintenance on skellig michael co kerry ireland kj was ringed as an adult at trewavas head in 2017 and bred there when the site was doing well until 2020 as the main site started to fail it then moved a short distance along the coast to trequean zawn in 2021 but then wasn t seen in 2022 kj on its travels brian power we rarely see movements between our sites and wales ireland as it s far more likely for us to share birds with the french colonies in fact this is our first kittiwake to be found in ireland and only the second cornish ringed bird to make the trip posted by mark grantham at 08 50 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels herring gull kittiwake 19 october 2022 barn owl 2022 update it s been a strange summer for lots of our regular projects with freak weather bird flu and remnants of covid still making life difficult some of our birds have fared particularly badly with kittiwake reduced to just one successful sitre across cornwall a crying shame our barn owl monitoring co...