White bred Sandwich Tern

Ewan Weston from the Grampian Ringing Group writes:

On 19 June, Grampian Ringing Group carried out some colour ringing at the Sandwich Tern colony in the Sands of Forvie NNR, Aberdeenshire. The group has a long running study on the species to gather information on survival, recruitment and movements. While rounding up some of the young for ringing, one eagle eyed trainee spotted a pure white chick amongst the regular coloured chicks. This bird was colour ringed, although we were not hugely hopeful of the prospects for a white bird as it would be more noticeable to predators. The photos of the chick were sent to an expert who suggested the bird was probably not an albino, but has the recessive Ino mutation, which results in very poor oxidation of melanin.

White Sandwich Tern and birds in regular plumage. Photo by John Tymon.

Since ringing, we have had several sightings, initially as this distinctive bird migrated down the east coast of Scotland and then over on the west coast of England at Ainsdale beach in Merseyside where it has spent a few weeks. Several people have sent us photographs of it and it has turned into a truly magnificent tern.

Flying alongside a 'normal' Sandwich Tern. Photo by John Tymon.

From this colour ringing project, over the last few years we have found that once birds leave their breeding sites they spend several months on the UK coast (often north of their breeding sites) before heading south to winter predominantly in Africa. Very few Sandwich Terns return to Europe in their second summer, with most only migrating back to Europe in their third or fourth summer. It will be quite a long wait to see if this bird returns to Scotland in a few years time to breed, but if it does I am sure it will be seen.

As this project highlights, sightings of colour marked birds have helped increase our knowledge of the movements and behaviours of many species, not just Sandwich Terns. So, if you see a colour marked bird (or find a bird fitted with just a metal ring), please report it at www.ring.ac.

Getting more from your birding

Here at the BTO we engage with countless local birders as well as ringers and nest recorders. A lot of important work is undertaken by birders across the length and breadth of Britain & Ireland. One such birder is Lee Collins who writes:

My local patch at Dawlish Warren NNR in South Devon has, over the last three years, achieved some amazing success in generating large numbers of field reads of gulls, terns and waders; my efforts over 2014 were summarized on the Demog blog in May 2015. I am not a ringer, in fact no ringing is currently done on the site (although some ringing was done previously), yet with a positive mind-set, high on-site attendance accompanied with bundles of enthusiasm, anyone can achieve amazing results with ring reading.

Dawlish Warren NNR is a coastal reserve with a  long and rich history in birding terms and I'm proud to have called this my local patch since 1984. On-site breeding of gulls, terns and waders is non-existent and thus ring reads are generally confined to the winter months, although the months of July and August do also provide a bumper opportunity with the onset of post breeding dispersal.

I have just finished writing a detailed 38 page article on my efforts over 2015. In total I've record 429 field reads, comprising 16 species and involving 219 different individuals. Here’s a brief resume of the highlights.



Dawlish Warren. Taken by Lee Collins

The standout single read was in securing my second ever Roseate Tern ring. This bird was ringed at Rockabill, Ireland in 2013 and the read may be the only recovery of this species in the Britain & Ireland during 2015 away from their breeding colonies. Terns are of particular interest to me and although no breeding occurs, I see good numbers of 200+ Sandwich Terns present during July and August. During this periods it is a hive of activity, with birds coming and going as they feed offshore and drop back in to roost or to feed their fledged young in front of the hide.

I made 61 reads during this nine week period, securing positive reads on 35 different individuals (30 adults and five juveniles). The reads were a combination of colour rings (15) and the more difficult to read metal ringed birds (20).

Frustratingly, not a single bird recorded on the site was to provide information on where they bred during 2015, although most probably nested several hundred kilometres away. Importantly, there is a good rate of multi-year observations of several individual birds recorded on-site during 2013 and 2014. The results suggest the Warren plays an important role as a staging and feeding area during post breeding dispersal.

Sandwich Tern taken by Lee Collins

The majority of Sandwich Tern ringing locations were in Scotland (750+ km away) and the Netherlands (600 km away), although others also range from Poland to Ireland. The Polish-ringed Sandwich Tern is particularly noteworthy as it looks to be the first recorded in Britain & Ireland.

Sanderling taken by Lee Collins

Waders are of particular importance and are abundant on the reserve. Sanderling in particular are of interest due to their long-distance migratory pattern and I found ten different colour ringed individuals during 2015. Most birds were seen during the month of May as they headed north to breeding grounds in Greenland. These birds were ringed in Greenland, Iceland or Mauritania.

Ringed Plover taken by Lee Collins

Ringed Plover is an abundant species in Devon, yet with a poor recovery history. I recorded seven in 2015, which is almost double the entire recovery history for the county. These were found during the autumn, presumably passage migrants dropping in to refuel. Unsurprisingly, a few were from Iceland, but several were from Norway and a one was from Germany.

Despite these impressive recoveries, my most important work is in fact dedicated to a species that receives little attention from practically all the birders that visit the site, the Oystercatcher. Over a three year period I have made almost 270 positive metal ring reads involving 116 different individuals, with 77 different birds recorded during 2015 alone.

The vast majority (91%) of these were ringed on-site, as part of a study programme undertaken between 1976 and 2004. The movements recorded may not be very far but this provides invaluable data on longevity and survival of this species, especially as it is now amber listed. I have recorded over a dozen individuals that were at least 25 years old, plus another that was ringed in 1983, making it at least 32 years old!

If you wish to read more, you can read Lee's full article on the Dawlish Warren blog.

Sandwich Tern: a potential US first from Northumberland

Earlier in the autumn we received a very interesting report from the USA, of a ringed Sandwich Tern that really sounded like a BTO-ringed bird. Sandwich Terns aren't the commonest bird anyway in northeast USA, but interestingly in recent years most authorities have split the (Eurasian) Sandwich Tern from the (Nearctic) Cabot's Tern. The American Ornithologists' Union have yet to follow suit, but if they do then a record of a ringed bird is a sure-fire way to confirm its identity.

For such an important record we were eventually able to confirm the ring number with the finder and this was indeed a bird from Northumberland: DB67406 had been ringed as a chick on Coquet Island in 2002. With just one previous record of a 'possible' in Chicago in 2010 (details here), this bird could well turn out to be the first Sandwich Tern record for the USA.

DB67406 was seen by biologist Jeff Spendelow, who studies the use of staging sites by Roseate Terns in the Cape Cod area of southeast Massachusetts. It was first seen on one of his study sites on 31st July, but it wasn't until 21st August that Jeff was able to read its ring, with it also later seen at nearby Chatham on 7th September (in red on the map below). Several other intrepid American birders managed to paddle out to the islands to see the bird, but it was hardly 'twitchable'! Photographs of the bird do also show many of the features used to seperate Sandwich from Cabot's Tern, but you can't argue with a bird ringed as a chick in Europe!

Interestingly, there is an equally unusual record the other way round, with a Cabot's Tern from the USA being found dead in the UK (in green on the map below). NAW 110386842 was ringed as a chick at Beaufort, in 1984 and was found dead in November 1984 at the rather bizarre location of Newhouse Wood in Herefordshire. It was reported independently (as a tern/gull) by two observers so is genuine, and is the first record of Cabot's Tern in Europe. There have since been further records in Europe (including a possible Cayenne Tern in Wales), but this remains a most bizarre first.

View Sandwich and Cabot's Terns in a larger map

Recent work at several Sandwich Tern colonies in the UK has seen large numbers of chicks being colour-ringed, an even better way of keeping track of their movements. At Coquet, 52 chicks were colour-ringed this year alone, with a further 102 on the Farne Islands. Of the latter, 11 have been seen further north in the autumn, from Musselburgh to Findhorn. Birds have also been colour-ringed in Norfolk, Grampian and The Netherlands, so plenty to keep an eye out for.

Ringed birds in the Gambia part 3!

The increasing work done in Africa to find out about our declining migrants is picking up pace, with the BTO Cuckoos still going strong and the Out of Africa project. As mentioned in a post previously, a team of volunteer ringers have just returned from their third trip to Kartong Bird Observatory, The Gambia, in an attempt to gain more knowledge on our European passerines and gain more information on African birds.

I was part of the team, my second trip, and we managed to catch 1200 birds of 121 species during the 10 day ringing session. Good numbers of herons, raptors, terns, shrikes and African passerines were caught including 70 Long-tailed Nightjar and 50 Jacana. Most importantly 250 Western Palaearctic passerines were caught including Whitethroat, Chiffchaff, Melodious Warbler, Subalpine Warbler, Reed and Sedge warbler and a Nightingale (but without a data logger!). We also saw an Osprey with a satelite tag but were unable to read the colour ring.

Some birds were doing some very interesting moult while in Africa - one 1st winter Chiffchaff was actively finishing off a complete primary moult. As we know neither adults or first year birds are supposed to moult in their wintering quarters.

The team also proved some direct migration thanks to birds that were already ringed by other ringing schemes. The first was from a Sandwich Tern with a BTO ring that had been ringed on Coquet Island, Northumberland this year. We also caught a Sandwich Tern from Helgoland, Germany and a Sedge Warbler wearing a French ring. The next trip in January will focus on terns, waders and Acrocephalus warblers in the reed beds.

For more information on Kartong Bird Observatory see www.kartongbirdobservatory.org.

This was an amazing experience and if you wish to be considered for future trips (probably 2013) please contact Jez Blackburn (jezblackburn@sky.com) for more details and an application form. Note - you need to be a ringer and have good knowledge of moult!

Top picture- Squacco heron. Middle picture - Woodchat Shrike. Above - The team

One good tern deserves another... and another...

Tony Murray writes and provides photo:

The plight of the Roseate Tern has been well documented over the last few years. The National Parks Wildlife Service (NPWS) has been involved in wardening the largest ternery in Ireland at Lady’s Island Lake, Co. Wexford for many years now. Since my move from Co. Mayo to Co. Wexford in 2004, this site has fallen under my responsibility as the Wildlife Ranger for South Wexford.

The annual tern wardening project generally involves management of the site, predator control and monitoring. The deployment of nestboxes, ringing and ring reading has also been done at other Irish, UK and French Roseate Tern colonies.


The task has got bigger and bigger over the last few years as our numbers of gulls and terns have increased. Mediterranean Gulls are up to 10 pairs and it has also been good news for all our tern species. Roseates have climbed from 66 in 2004 to over 150 pairs this year. Through ring reading, it is great to show the growth is due to 'home grown' individuals, but however some have relocated here from Dublin.

Our Sandwich Tern numbers continue to grow as well, with 1100 to 1300 pairs between 2004 and 2006. We are now currently just shy of the two thousand mark! Ring reading has again shown plenty of 'home grown' birds breeding but a couple from Inner Farne, Farne Islands, Northumberland and Strangford, County Down have been recorded recently.

Italian sandwiches

DE10153 was ringed in June 2008 on Ythan Estuary in Aberdeenshire by Grampian Ringing Group . Adriano Talamelli and his team captured it in September 2010, two years later in Salina di Comacchio (Ferrara,Italy). Salina di Comacchio is a regular ringing site of Adriano and his team, as well as a wintering site for this species. Notably, in the same place another tern was controlled in 2006; a 22 year old Sandwich Tern ringed in Ireland!

DE10153 was colour-marked with a cohort colour combination. The colour rings show the origin and the hatching year but don't identify it individually. In the Ringing office we therefore encourage the use of individual colour marks.

View DE10153 in a larger map
About 2000 sandwich terns are ringed in the UK and Ireland every year. Until last year, we had records of 28 of them having been reported from Italy, but this is the first since 2006.

So far this Autumn we have had another report of a Sandwich Tern; from Coimbra, Portugal.
Adriano Talamelli, who coordinates the sighting of forgein colour-marked birds in Italy, was kind enough to supply us with some lovely photographs of Sandwich Terns and we look forward to hearing from his team again in the future with more controls of British ringed birds.