Wrenhaven bird-ringing station joins flyway census from West Africa to the Arctic

Volunteers at the bird-ringing station on Fenwick Point have joined an international census tracking migrating birds along one of the world's busiest flyways, which stretches from the coasts of West Africa to breeding grounds in the Arctic. More than 200 sites in around 30 countries are taking part in the count this autumn, coordinated by the East Atlantic Flyway Partnership.

Every morning at first light, volunteers open fine mesh nets among the bushes on the headland and check them every half hour. Birds are gently removed, fitted with a small numbered ring, weighed, measured and released within minutes. Ringers can tell from a bird's fat reserves whether it is ready to continue its journey or needs to rest and feed first.

Tiny travellers, long journeys

Since the start of September the station has ringed more than 4,300 birds of 52 species, from goldcrests weighing barely five grams to redwings arriving from Scandinavia. Out on the mudflats of Greyling Bay, a separate team is counting waders such as knot and bar-tailed godwit, some of which will fly more than 5,000 kilometres without stopping.

Jean Halloran, who has run the station for 18 years, said the value of the census lay in sharing records. A bird ringed on Fenwick Point and caught again in a wetland in West Africa or on the tundra tells researchers far more than either record alone.

Each ring is like a letter posted into the world. Most never come back, but the ones that do tell us extraordinary stories.

Last year a sedge warbler ringed at the station was caught again in a reedbed in Senegal just 19 days later. Another, a turnstone, has been recorded on the same stretch of shore at Fenwick Point every winter for nine years.

Partnership coordinator Dr Marieke Vos said data from the census would help identify which stopover sites were most important and where habitats were under pressure. The Fenwick Point station welcomes visitors on Saturday mornings until the end of November, weather permitting, and asks people to keep dogs on leads near the nets.