Bardsey Razorbill thrashes longevity record!

Bardsey Bird Observatory has just reported the capture of Europe's oldest Razorbill. This bird was ringed (with ring AT73954) as a chick on 2^nd July 1962 and was then caught several times until 1979, when its original ring had to be replaced (with ring M23170). With its new ring, this bird was caught again on 25^th June 2004, making it just one week short of 42 years old! The previous longevity record for a BTO-ringed Razorbill was 28½ years, which was a bird ringed on Skokholm Island in Wales.

Over the past week, the Bardsey warden has also caught three birds over 36 years old, all of which would have beaten the old record.

The Razorbill (a member of the auk family) breeds on rocky coasts around Britain and Ireland, with a population of over 215,000 birds, with 12,600 birds in Wales. The Bardsey population is around 1,000 pairs, and birds have been ringed there since the opening of the Observatory in 1954.

Welsh Blue Tit island hops to Ireland

The common or garden Blue Tit is one of the best known of our garden birds, but it turns out that they can also be international travellers!

The Bird Observatories Council were surprised recently to receive details of a Blue Tit that had been caught on Cape Clear Bird Observatory in County Cork, Ireland. This was firstly surprising as Blue Tit (present in over 90% of UK gardens according to BTO Garden BirdWatch) is actually a rare migrant to this southwestern outpost of Ireland. Secondly, it turned out that this particular bird had originally been ringed at Bardsey Bird Observatory in West Wales. Amazingly Blue Tit is even rarer on Bardsey, with this bird being one of only eight ringed in 2003! This rare island wanderer was first caught on Bardsey Island on 4th October 2003 before being caught on Cape Clear Island just 19 days later, having travelled 354km. Where this bird was heading is a mystery, as if it hadn't found the island it would have had a lot of sea ahead of it!

This is only the second time a Blue Tit has moved to or from Ireland in the 94-year history of the BTO ringing scheme! The previous record was of a bird ringed on St Agnes in the Scilly Isles on 8th October 1957 that was found dead 4 days later on a boat off Tuskar Rock, County Wexford, having crossed 261km of sea. Blue Tits are generally sedentary, just touring their same home patch and not migrating at all. Over 85% of recorded movements (shown by ring returns) are of less than 10km, and less than 150 birds (of over 2,750,000 ringed) have made it over the 100km mark!

The oldest known Manx Shearwater re-found on Bardsey Island

The oldest bird known from the British bird-ringing scheme has been re-found on Bardsey Island, off the Lleyn Peninsula, North Wales.

The bird was caught by Steve Stansfield, the warden of Bardsey Bird Observatory during routine night-time trapping of shearwaters in April 2005. The bird was first ringed in mid-May 1957, just one month short of 46 years ago. However, the bird was ringed as an adult and it is known that Manx Shearwaters do not attempt to breed before they are 4-6 years old which means this bird is at least 50 and in all probability in excess of 52 years old.

This bird was retrapped in 1961 and again in 1978 before making the headlines when it was caught in April last year. This bird is the oldest known from the British ringing scheme (the previous oldest being a Fulmar from Orkney at just over 40 years) and is also one of the oldest known wild birds anywhere in the world, possibly now the oldest as the Albatross which had reached 50 has not been seen in recent years.

The bird was fitted with a new ring this year as the one fitted in 1978 had started to wear out with and the number was getting difficult to read - the bird is now on its fourth ring.

This bird will have flown to the South Atlantic, off the coast of Brazil or Argentina, every winter for the past 50 or so years, probably averaging around 18-20,000km for each return journey. Even during the breeding season they spend much of their time at sea and it is thought that birds from Bardsey could go as far as the Bay of Biscay on feeding trips when they have a chick to feed. So the miles this bird will have flown and the weather conditions it will have faced are difficult to comprehend.