BYGONE BIRDING: PIONEERING STUDIES IN BIRD RINGING YIELDED ENCOURAGING RESULTS

Teal - long-distance migrant

The following letter was published in the October 1921 edition of The Ibis - quarterly journal of the British Ornithologists' Union.

Sir - 

As one of the most dedicated individual ringers of birds in this country, I read Professor Thomson's article on "Bird-migration by The Marking Method'' (The Ibis, July 1921) with great interest.

In the literature of the subject, however, I was astonished to find no mention of the marking experiments conducted by the late Professor J. A. Palmen, of Helsingfors University, in Finland, or by the Russians at Kielkond, on the island of Oesal, under Herr Stoll. 

I have found  in this country ringed birds  marked by both of these gentlemen.

Professor Palmen's experiments show some wonderful results - Black-headed Gulls, for instance, showing two distinct lines of migration, the one down the Baltic and the other overland across Europe via Austria to the Mediterranean. 

His ringing of other species, many of them within the Arctic Circle, also showed long journeys.

Large numbers of each species must be marked before any conclusions can be arrived at, yet Prof Thomson also fails to mention my article in British Birds (vol. viii. p. 209) on the result of marking nearly 12,000 Black-headed Gulls  in this country. 

To Prof  Thomson's query: "Do young birds seek the same winter quarters as their parents?" the answer is that they do as shown by more than one species, especially Lesser Black-backed Gulls bred in this country and of which an encouraging percentage has been recovered.

Neither is any mention made of Prof Palmen's ducks marked in the far north. These show some wonderful results.

Two Teal, for instance, were recovered in Spain and Italy respectively. 

His Starling records are also intensely interesting, showing, as they do, several recoveries in this country. 

In the article, three records only are given of Swallows marked with British Birds rings being recovered in South Africa, whereas the number should be five. 

Again, no mention is made of the wonderful record of a Wigeon marked with a British Birds ring in England and recovered in Asia. 

With regard to the supposed sedentary habits of the British Redbreast, I can quote at least two instances of such marked birds being recovered abroad.

Finally, it would be interesting to learn the total number of birds marked by the American Bird Banding Association.

I might conclude by saying that Mr. F. W. Smalley and myself once marked 720 birds of one species in the course of one day.

H. W. Robinson

The Patchetts

Caton,

Near Lancaster

Lancashire

1 August, 1921