After much toing and froing (the ring number was somehow altered by 100), my 2CY female Blackcap that I trapped in mid-April last year, came back as having been ringed 20 km north of Toulouse, Haute Garonne, on passage south, possibly to Algeria, on 26th September the previous year (2014).  This is almost 900 km south of Williton.

Have now heard from the BTO that the French Blackcap was ringed 100 days earlier on 19th August 2015 at Reserve Naturelle, Trappes, Yvelines, Seine-et-Oise ( just west of Paris). So presumably this bird was a central European bred bird making it’s way to the British Isles for the winter.

Still waiting to hear about my female French ringed Blaca caught last April. My first winter BC was 17th Oct, also a female.

Roger, I quite agree they might need a separate page, the Blackcaps from the garden have now produced more foreign controls than any other species. Ranging from the Czech Republic and Germany in the East, to Northern Ireland in the North and Morocco in the South.

Thanks John. Glad to hear of any foreign controls and I’ll get them on the ringing page for interest.  Think Blackcaps may warrant a page of their own!

The first wintering Blackcap was trapped on 16th October and retrapped on 22nd November.
A juvenile Blackcap ringed on 2nd July was controlled by another ringer in Faro, Portugal on 3rd November. My first bird to be recovered in Portugal !
A female Blackcap was caught in the garden on 27th November with a French ring and I am awaiting details of where and when this bird was ringed.