August is a very busy month for birds at Radipole and Lodmoor. Thousands of sedge warblers and reed warblers are heading south for the winter. But how do we find out where they go? Well, by ringing them of course. Bird ringing is something that’s done throughout the UK and the rest if Europe and involves placing a small metal ring on the birds leg. The ring is stamped with a unique number which allows us to follow an individual throughout its life. Whilst we have the bird in the hand we can also take measurements and look at the bird’s condition which gives us a valuable insight into their lives.
Radipole has always been a hotspot for ringing large numbers of birds. A lot of effort was made in the seventies and early eighties with a lull through most of the nineties. Then a big effort was made either side of the turn of the millennium when thousands of birds were ringed during the autumn migration. This gave us a real insight to the shear number of birds that use the nature reserve as a re-fuelling station on their long southward journey.
This August we have had a few mornings ringing and we've ringed a reasonable number of birds so thought I’d post a few picture of some of our reedbed species in the hand.
I'll start off with Sedge warbler which is a common species at Radipole and is often over looked because of this. This time of year most of the sedge warblers caught are birds born this year. The adults leave quite quickly once the young have fledged. This photo is of a juvenile.
Occasionally we catch something a little more unusual. This mornings surprise was a Grasshopper Warbler which doesn't breed at Radipole but does use the reserve on migration. Due to its extreme skulky habits, birders very rarely see them whilst out birdwatching.
We also got our first Yellow legged Gull of the autumn which appeared outside the visitor centre breifly this afternoon.