Bird ringing at Hope Bottom

This bird ringing blog is by Terry Hallahan. Terry is a keen ornithologist as well as licensed bird ringer and ringing trainer. He is also a schedule 1 permit holder, which allows monitoring of bird species given additional protection by the Wildlife and Countryside Act. He is the leader of the Sussex Barn Owl Study Group, who install and monitor boxes for Barn, Little and Tawny Owls as well as Kestrels, in Sussex - monitoring more than 200 each year. Terry obtained permission to start bird ringing at Seaford Head in 2021. Now a team of five qualified ringers are involved and the groups is most active during peak migration times, ie April to June and August to November - 'weather permitting as it is not possible to erect nets when it is wet and windy!'.

Bird ringing at Hope Bottom

Hope Bottom, Seaford Head Nature Reserve, is home to a healthy population of resident birds but is also a magnet for bird migrants incoming in spring and outgoing, plus UK southerly movements, in late summer and autumn. 

We initially started bird ringing to understand more about the breeding success of the local population of European Stonechat and were successful in trapping and ringing several birds. In addition, we discovered one pair were triple brooded (three successful breeding attempts). This is uncommon and clearly indicates the abundance of prey availability.

Our recent activity has been focussed on trapping and ringing migrants.

Studying bird migration is a most important factor to help us understand the mystery and variation of bird migratory behaviour, for example, some birds move only short distances, while others can migrate vast distances to wintering areas in the southern hemisphere.

Mist nets, made of thin nylon and erected between poles are commonly used by trained bird ringers and are deployed here and are a very safe method of catching birds, so far, we have caught more than 700 birds of 27 different species, 15 of these migratory, so we are hoping for some interesting re-traps by other ringers.

You will find our team in the valley leading to Hope Bottom and we welcome interested parties who would like the opportunity to see birds ‘in the hand’.