100 years of strange bird deaths with a ring of truth

Published on Wednesday 6 May 2009 22:02

THE best ending most can hope for is a quick collision with a window pane, a glorious demise in a blast of shot or a mauling by the neighbourhood cat.

But some of Scotland's birds have met their fate in rather more exotic fashion.

From the osprey that ended up in the stomach of a Gambian crocodile to the gull that flew in from Norway before being struck down by a golf ball over Prestwick, the fascinating and often bizarre lives and deaths of millions of birds have come to light as the British Trust for Ornithology marks 100 years since the start of ringing in the UK.

Ornithologists at Aberdeen University ringed the first bird in Britain, a lapwing, on 8 May, 1909. Since then 36 million have been fitted with rings by volunteers, enabling the BTO to learn about their amazing journeys and their often peculiar mishaps.

Mark Grantham, research ecologist with the BTO Ringing Scheme, said: "You never really know what's going to arrive in the post. It's always entertaining to open the post and find out what has happened to another bird."

The furthest any bird ringed by the BTO has travelled was an Arctic tern, which flew 11,300 miles from Anglesey before its death in Australia.

Mr Grantham said all the reports they get from members of the public who find the tags all around the world help them to learn more about the lives of Britain's birds.

The oldest ringed bird, at 50 years and 11 months, is a Manx shearwater. It was originally ringed in Wales in 1957 and has bred there every summer since. A fulmar at Eynhallow, Orkney, is now 41 and there is a 37-year-old gannet on Bass Rock.