DUTCH RINGING CENTRE - VOGELTREKSTATION ARNHEM
PO Box 40 6666 ZG Heteren Holland tel: +31 26 479 12 34 fax: +31 26 472 32 27
email: vogeltrekstation@nioo.knaw.nl website: www.vogeltrekstation.nl

Report for the Euring General Meeting, Chemnitz, August 2003

Scheme:

• The Dutch Ringing Centre (Vogeltrekstation Arnhem) is a unit of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Centre for Terrestrical Ecology (NIOO-CTO) in Heteren. NIOO-CTO is a unit of the Royal Academy of Science (KNAW).
• We started ringing birds in 1911.
• Since Jan. 2002 we have a website (www.vogeltrekstation.nl) with an active page in 4 languages to receive recoveries.

Staff:

• 1 fte scientist: David Thomson.
• 1.6 fte technical: Mrs. Will Bax, Gerrit Speek.
• 1 fte technical: Rinse Wassenaar, manager Euring databank.

Ringers:

• Active ringers on August 2003: 440.
• Ringing permits are issued by the Ringing Centre itself.
• Participation in a ringing-course is obligatory at least once every three years.
• Ringers do not pay an annual fee.

Ringings and recoveries:

• The last few years we ring on average per year 220.000 birds.
• The amount of recoveries is increased spectacular since 1993, because we also administrate recaptures where ringer and finder are the same person. On average now 60.000 recaptures and recoveries per year.

Reports:

• Annual ringing reports since 1911.
• Three times per year a magazine for the ringers (Op Het Vinkentouw).

Rings:

• Aluminium (15 sizes) and stainless steel (8 sizes), total 15 sizes.
• We have special rings for White Stork and Mute Swans.
• We buy the rings from Mekaniska in Sweden, but there is contact with Porzana (UK) because of the danger of being dependant on one supplier.
• Ringers have to pay for the rings.

Colour-ringing and other marks:

• Colour-ringing and marking is co-ordinated by the ringing scheme, but administration is done through the users.
• There are regular contacts with international co-ordinators.
• The colour-ring website of Dirk Raes is very important for us.

Computers:

• All recoveries since 1911 are computerised (August 2003: 875.000).
• Starting 1991 the ringing-data are computerised (August 2003: 4.570.000).
• We do receive all ringing- and recovery-data from the ringers electronically (floppy disk, email, ftp server).
• At the Ringing Centre we use (since May 2003) the database Microsoft SQL 2000 with Window 2000 Server as operation system.

Projects initiated by the Ringing Centre:

• CES, RAS, Barn Swallow.

Gerrit Speek, manager Dutch Ringing Centre, August 11, 2003

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