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Ring Ouzel Study Group | |
News
Click here for recent Ring Ouzel sightings and information on the Birdguides.com website.
May 2008: 3rd May (from Geoffrey Moore) I visited Fountains Abbey on Saturday, 3 May 2008. While there, we saw a male Ring Ouzel at the edge of a stream, probably catching insects. Chris Rollie comments: This is the latest in a string of interesting records of ouzels in unlikely places, but then anywhere with short grass is possible on migration for a bird that eats lots of worms. Almost certainly, this bird would be a Fennoscandian migrant; these birds come through much later than our own, on average. I myself had one on Friday last in former breeding habitat in Ayrshire, but I'm fairly sure it was a Fennoscandian - and it was with fieldfare, willow warbler and chiff chaff in a little wooded gulley (oasis) in an otherwise moorland (desert). A classic migrant trap. Such birds may make for considerable `noise' in the new breeding bird atlas survey that is underway.
April 2008: 16th April (from Paul Winter) Spotted male ring ouzel on garden fence overlooking farmland. Location - Bridgwater, Somerset. I have never seen one before! (in 56 years)
16th April (from Lesley Walters) I saw my first ever Ring Ouzel today on Pembrey Mountain, South West Wales. It has been a particularly cold spring here and maybe it felt at home?
8th April (from Graham Pyatt) Birds did not arrive in Manor Valley, Tweeddale until 5th April, and even then they got a hostile reception from the weather. This was quite a close encounter and very personal in the blizzard [click here to see a photo]. I felt sorry for the bird which was hacking at a vertical edge of exposed soil at the side of a track. The first 7 birds were probably all males but today I saw a definite female. Graham Rebecca comments: Reminded me of early April last year and this incident. Last year a keeper in Glen Clunie picked up an ouzel dead and unmarked on a land-rover track following 3 days of unseasonal snow. When is this 'global warming' supposed to reach NE Scotland?!
March 2008: First Ring Ouzel sightings of the year: 17th March (a.m.): Male singing at Stanage Edge in the Derbyshire Peak District [reported by Tim Melling] 19th March: Male seen in Bowland, Lancashire[reported by Pete Wilson] 27th March: First North York Moors sighting (in Rosedale) [reported by Ken Hutchinson]
October 2007: Geoff Shaw has the following observations from Glentrool: 100-300 Fieldfares spend a few weeks each autumn feeding on ripe fruit
in a grove of Siberian Crab Apple (Malus baccata) in Glentrool. Single
Ring Ouzels sometimes appear with them. This year, an adult male RO turned
up in a mist net on 21/10/2007, and again on 28/10/2007. Probably the
same bird seen briefly on 25/10. Weight at first capture was 99.9g, increasing
to 114.4g a week later. The grove is on a streamside, deep in the sitka,
with no other feeding opportunities (ie. fruit/short pasture) in the vicinity. August 2007: Article from BBC Online describing radio tracking Ring Ouzels in the Cairngorms
May 2006: Article from Bird Life International linking Ring Ouzel decline to Climate Change
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![[click here to see a photo]](images/Ring%20Ouzel%20in%20the%20snow.jpg){kind=link}