Baltic Ringing Scheme has ringed 2 million birds. 65 years of migration research in Poland

The past weekend was an important event for Polish ornithology. The Bird Migration Research and Monitoring Programme Baltic Ringing Scheme celebrated its 65th anniversary, which provided an opportunity to take stock and present new directions for future work.

The oldest citizen science project in Poland

In September 1960, a group of students from the University of Warsaw established a research camp on the spit of Lake Ptasi Raj near Górki Wschodnie in Gdańsk. The first bird to be ringed was a European robin. Information about this event was recorded in a 32-page school notebook, which today has archival value. In this way, the activities of the Baltic Ringing Scheme began, making it one of the longest-running bird migration monitoring programmes in the world.

Currently, the centre of the programme’s activities is located at the Bird Migration Research Station of the University of Gdańsk, while fieldwork is carried out at three sites: Dąbkowice near Darłowo, Kuźnica on the Hel Peninsula, and Siekierki near Krynica Morska. In addition to ornithologists, successive generations of students and thousands of volunteers are involved in the Baltic Ringing Scheme.

Caught, ringed, monitored

The head of the Baltic Ringing Scheme, Dr Jarosław K. Nowakowski, told PAP that the number of ringed birds has reached almost 2 million. All of them were captured in special nets, measured, ringed, and safely released back into the wild. Observations are conducted twice a year, in spring and autumn, and the accumulated body of ornithological knowledge continues to grow.

So far, the programme has provided more than 10,000 so-called recoveries from various parts of the world, and among the captured birds the scheme’s participants have identified 15 species that had never previously been recorded in Poland. Just eight months ago, the presence of the Caspian warbler (Curruca mystacea) was confirmed in the country for the first time, a species migrating from south-west Asia to North Africa.

The Baltic ringing scheme for nature

Monitoring conducted as part of the Baltic Ringing Scheme is an important source of data on changes in bird numbers and migration timing. The results are used, among other things, to analyse the impact of climate change on population dynamics. As part of the project What have birds told us through 60 years of research? Ornithology in the service of environmental and climate protection, observations to date were summarised and presented in a broad context of environmental change.

We observe that under the influence of environmental changes, the wing structure and body size of some species are changing, and this is evolution caught in the act, points out Dr Jarosław K. Nowakowski.

The Baltic Ringing Scheme is a phenomenon on a global scale, and its experience and developed techniques are used by ornithologists in South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt, Jordan, and Mexico, among others. The development of international cooperation and study visits abroad have opened the door to observations of global significance. It is worth adding that over recent decades the technical infrastructure of the scheme has been enhanced with modern equipment such as geolocators and tools for genetic research.

To mark the 65th anniversary of the scheme, a meeting was organised last weekend in Jastarnia, where the most important achievements and conclusions from ornithological observations along the Polish coast were presented. The conference programme, attended by more than 90 ornithologists, included topics such as the problem of glass traps, bird migration routes across Poland, and extreme migration strategies of some species.