RINGING ON CAPE CLEAR

Ringing has been carried out on Cape since 1959 and while it will never be a major part of Observatory life, it does have an important role to play. The comparatively low number of migrant passerines mean that rarely are more than a hundred birds ringed in a day and this drastically reduces the chances of obtaining 'controls' - birds you have ringed that are retrapped elsewhere, or were ringed elsewhere and retrapped by you. It is these controls that ringing was initially set up for, as a guide to migration patterns. Nowadays, the population levels and shifts are of more importance and this is where Cape Clear fits in. With the resident island populations of several species, annual ringing totals can reveal whether these are increasing or decreasing and how this compares to the National trend. It also shows strange occurences, such as a Blue Tit retrapped in Cotters Garden that had been ringed on Bardsey Island nine days earlier - and continues to be the only live record of a Blue Tit crossing the Irish Sea in either direction! Or ringing 125 Coal Tits in the autumn of 2008 when the total number previously ringed numbered only 91.

Of course, there is always the possibility of catching something that nobody had seen around, like the Red-eyed Vireo in September 2004, still the earliest European record or the Thrush Nightingale or the Little Bunting or....

In the early ringing reports from Cape, there was an annual plea for more ringers to visit the island, not only to increase coverage but also to encourage young Irish ringers. That plea is as relevent now as it was then and we still need visiting ringers to help keep up the numbers.

Ringing on an island anywhere is likely to be fraught with problems, not least the weather! However, given the right conditions and the obligatory slice of luck, a trainee or C Permit ringer can vastly increase their species list as well as, if the slice was a big one, catching the odd rarity.