Bird ringing as we know it today, was invented by the Danish teacher Hans Christian Mortensen. Briefly the method is to fasten a metal ring around the bird’s foot. The ring is supplied with an address and a serial number. On June 5, 1899, Mortensen put the first aluminum ring onto the nestling of a Starling.
Mortensen’s method was soon adopted in other countries, and in Sweden the method was put into use in 1911, in Finland in 1912, and in Norway in 1914.
It was H. Tho. L. Schaanning who started bird ringing in Norway. This happened in 1914 when Schaanning ringed 31 birds at Hauklisæter in Valdres. The house martin was the first bird to be ringed in Norway. The same year the Norwegian Hunting and Fishing Association started ringing grouse, under the management of Alf Wollebæk.
Schaanning was employed as a curator at the Stavanger Museum in 1918. He continued with his ringing activities and expanded them. This work is now a permanent part of the museum’s responsibility.
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