The Results of Ringing Auks in Britain and Ireland

Abstract

The annual total exceeded 500 in only seven years and it has fluctuated during the last 20 years. There are few colonies where they may safely be ringed; elsewhere disturbance may cause severe losses of eggs and young showered from the ledges by startled adults. Apart from the few safe colonies most ringing is now done by professional biologists undertaking special studies. As with the Razorbill, about two nestlings are ringed for every full-grown bird.Lundy (16.7%). Almost all from 1948-1957. Pembroke Colonies (9.3%). Since 1933 but interrupted by the War.Great Saltee (8.1%). All but seven of the recoveries were of 1966 pulli.

Movements from and age of return to an expanding Scottish Guillemot colony

“…These differences will be due in part to the fact that different recovery patterns occur in different regions (Table III). Slightly different but basically similar patterns were shown by Mead (1974) and Birkhead (1974). Neither detected large numbers of auks being netted off Ireland, and fewer Canna auks appear to be oiled in the North Sea.…”

“…Table II shows the number and percentage in each of these categories, compared to the national average given by Mead (1974). Significantly more Canna birds (x 2 = 38.9, P<0.001) were caught in fishing nets and significantly fewer ()( 2 = 14, P<0.001) shot than the national averages.…”

“…Age is estimated from 1 August in the year of ringing as a chick (young leave the colonies in mid-July and the sole recovery prior to 1 August has been placed with August birds). The age categories used are different to both Mead (1974) and Birkhead (1974) -colony 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 Table I shows the results of the counts at the ten sample sub-colonies. The 1982 sample of 930 'nests' represented 34% of the 2,700 breeding pairs estimated to be present on the island that year.…”

“…Movements Mead (1974) showed that Guillemots dispersed widely from their colonies but had a tendency to go to discrete areas. However, his sample sizes were small (eg.…”

“…Britain holds internationally important Guillemot Uria aalge colonies but published information is sparse. Mead (1974) examined ringing recoveries for all British auks, and Birkhead (1974) examined Guillemot movements and mortality. Both these were on a national scale and pre-dated the major Guillemot ringing programmes of the past few years.…”