The highlight of bird ringing at the bird feeding area at Binn Green on an otherwise quiet Saturday morning was when local bird ringer and Dove Stone volunteer Margaret Rawlins was reunited with a male Chaffinch that she ringed six years ago. She ringed the bird in her garden about 3 km away in 2008. On average Chaffinches live about three years, so it is quite a valuable and interesting record and will help contribute the the statistics on Chaffinch longevity - the bird has survived a couple of the coldest winters for many years, and was looking in good health.
The longevity record for Chaffinch is 12 years, so our bird has a few years to go yet to become a record breaker... This oldest bird was sadly killed by a car, over on the Wirral - again, it had been ringed locally.
Margaret is one of the team of local volunteers who help top up the bird feeders at Binn Green.
Improving our understanding of how long birds live is one of the important things that bird ringing does - if we know the lifespan of species then we can calculate how many young birds need to raise on average to maintain their populations. For most birds annual mortality is high in the first year, and then lower once they have gained experience and survival skills. One of the oldest birds recorded in England was an Oystercatcher that was 40 years old, and still going strong, but the record goes to a Manx Shearwater over on Bardsey island off the north Wales coast - at least 57 years old in 2008.
The BTO website gives a wealth of information - the on-line ringing report was used for information here...