Ring Ouzels have been starting to arrive back over the last couple of weeks. It will be at least a couple of weeks before we will start to see them settling down to nest – which will hopefully get us past the busiest Easter period – so no restrictions just yet!
Last year we began a project to individually colour-ring broods of ouzels on the eastern gritstone edges – to help understand return rates of first year birds (a possible factor in Ring Ouzel population declines) and which will also help our understanding of how birds use and move around the area during the breeding season.
It would be great to hear of any sightings of ringed birds (even if you don’t catch the exact colours). We ringed nests on Bamford, Stanage, Burbage and Curbar so these are the most likely areas for re-sightings, but it would be even more interesting if we see birds further afield – Derwent, High Peak, Kinder, possibly even Staffs.
The nest protection and monitoring work is probably familiar to those who regularly climb on grit – it has been supported by climbers and the BMC for many years now. We have a really good team of volunteers who help locate nests each year. There is some background info on the project here https://tinyurl.com/peakouzels and you can report sightings directly via email to [email protected] (both ringed birds and potential breeding/nesting birds).
I’ll post restriction updates here through the season too.