Heads down, bottoms up….

No apologies for photographing our tame (greedy) Blue Tit again.  I was trying to get more pics of the Robin but this little fella chased him away!  He's obviously a regular and regards this food store as his own.  He's the same bird I photographed a few weeks ago and as he was ringed I sent the detail off to the Bird Ringing people.  I got this very interesting reply last week...




Thank you for taking the time to report to us details of a bird ring you found. Information about this bird and its movements is given below. 
Ringing Scheme: London Ring Number: Y273442Species of bird: Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)
This bird was ringed by A J George as age at least 2 years, sex unknown on 29-Jan-2012 09:35:00 at 
OS Map reference NZ3750 accuracy 0, co-ordinates 54deg 50min N 1deg 25min W accuracy 0.

It was found on 09-Feb-2015 time unknown at 
OS Map reference NZ3750 accuracy 0, co-ordinates 54deg 50min N 1deg 25min W accuracy 0.
Finding condition: Sight record by non-ringer
Finding circumstances: Field Record
Extra Information: -
It was found 1107 days after it was ringed, 0 km from the ringing site, direction -.
Bird Ringing in Britain & Ireland is organised by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). Each year over 900,000 birds are ringed by over 2,500 highly trained bird ringers, most of whom are volunteers. They follow a careful training process that can take several years to complete to ensure that they have the necessary skills to catch and ring birds. The bird’s welfare is always the most important consideration during ringing activities.
Ringing began over 100 years ago to study the movements of birds. While it continues to generate information about movements, it also allows us to study how many young birds leave the nest and survive to breed as adults, as well as how many adults live from year to year and how many birds disperse to different breeding sites. Collection of this information helps us to understand why bird populations increase or decrease − vital information for conservation. Details of how many birds have been caught and where and when they have been found are available on the BTO website at www.bto.org/ringing-report.
Some interesting facts discovered from ringing data....
Oldest bird – Manx shearwater, 50 yrs 11 months
Furthest travelled – Arctic Tern from Wales to Australia 18,000 km
Strangest recovery – Osprey ring found in stomach of a crocodile in The Gambia!