Ending our 4th autumn monitoring migration in Alderney we have consistently seen a notable increase in new Dunnocks ringed during the month of October. This species is certainly not famous for its migrational movement records, Dunnocks wearing any kind of European scheme ring caught in the British Isles, are rare records indeed. Our initial thoughts were that we were witnessing local dispersal during the autumn months but our local retrap data has evidenced that movements across Alderney between our ringing sites are far and few between despite us ringing over 600 Dunnocks since April 2016. So some excitement 19th Oct 18′ when we caught a Dunnock sporting a French ring! It’s taken some time to obtain the original ringing data but worth the wait as we discover the bird was processed at Dunes du Fort Vert near Calais, the bird travelling just over 200 miles SW to Alderney in 7 days! This record goes some way to confirming our suspicions that in Alderney we are indeed seeing annual seasonal movements of Dunnocks heading south ahead of the colder months.
