A Lesser Whitethroat caught during a ringing demonstration at Blackburn Meadows Nature Reserve in August 2024.

Sorby Breck Ringing Group is an autonomous group that is affiliated to the Sorby Natural History Society. The Group is part of the national network of ringing groups, contributing to the national database run by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). A network of ringing stations are operated across the South Yorkshire and north Derbyshire each month and there are ringing demonstrations each year, including invitations to Sorby members listed in the Sorby Annual Programme.

It was formed in 1979 by the merger of the Sorby Ringing Group with the Breck Ringing Group. For many years the latter was based at Breck Farm, Staveley. Both groups were active in the Sheffield and north Derbyshire areas, each ringing about 1000 birds per year. Following merger annual ringing totals began to rise and have grown steadily.

The Group’s aims are:

“To provide data from ringing activities to support conservation and knowledge of bird species in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire.”

Ringing in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire

Putting a metal ring on a bird’s leg is a simple operation and one way of studying the migration of birds. The computerization of all the birds ringed by our Group and the centralization of data by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) improves still further the body of knowledge of bird species at particular sites in our area.

Knowing the wintering areas of our local warblers, their migration routes and post breeding areas where they find abundant supplies of insects for their journeys is one way of protecting birds and their habitats. Some sites in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire take on conservation significance when the results from regular ringing is analysed. It allows us to know more about the localities that support the largest numbers. Ringed bird recoveries from other sites inform us of their movements around the area during their stay.

The site at Hathersage for example is seen as one of special importance for the maintenance and improvement of Grey Wagtail numbers. The specie’s post breeding dispersal is a vulnerable time for juvenile birds. Finding abundant insects, as they become independent feeders, is a case of life or death for young Wagtails. With over 50 Grey Wagtails ringed at Hathersage, the habitat is seen to be of major importance for this species usually observed in small numbers, but with larger gatherings occurring at this site when recently fledged.

Meadow Pipits and Merlins move from their moorland breeding areas to the coast during winter. The topography of our region is a west to east altitudinal slope with landscape ranging from moorland at Ramsley Reservoir to Renishaw Park, with its lowland woodland habitat, providing habitat variations ranging from 250m. to 30m above sea level.

Our Thrush species, Finches and Buntings are frequently recovered further South in winter as birds travel greater distances in their search for food. Harsh weather affects their populations with evidence of long-distance movements when birds from our region move further afield. In the case of Reed Buntings such movements appear to be followed by a population slump, often one slow to recover. Ringed bird recoveries also repeat the same directional movements for many of our Finches and Buntings.

Marshland habitat is scarce in our region and yet vital to the success of species such as Reed Warblers and Sedge Warblers. Open scrub and rank vegetation near riverbanks and farmland holds the majority of our Whitethroats and Grasshopper Warblers where they breed. The same sites assume vital importance during late July and August as migrant Warblers disperse, feed and add body weight for their migratory flights ahead. Poor weather conditions during this time mean that these sites become significant to local populations. Evidence from retrapped migrants show birds feeding during this period returning early to breed at the same localities in future years. Dispersal through our area of migrant species provides some birds with a suitable breeding locality for the following year. What happens to marshland and farmland habitat during winter months begins to take on greater significance when this behaviour is considered and yet we rarely manage sites for invertebrates and migrant birds.

Ringing shows that our central location within the British Isles results in partial migration of many local bird species. In the case of Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Starling, Robin, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Goldcrest and Siskin there is evidence of both resident and immigrant wintering populations. Knowledge and importance of the areas they use and the food species they rely on continues to remain important.

Geoff Mawson – Ringing Secretary

Links

• Sorby Ornithological Group
• Guidance on Bird Recording
• Sorby Ornithological Reports
• Bird Organisations