Thursday 3 February 2011

LDV Ringing records - World Wetland Day

I had a look through some of the data provided for the Lower Derwent Valley (LDV) event as part of World Wetland Day yesterday (see the posts below here and here).

There have been approximately 140 international movements involving birds ringed, recovered and re-sighted in the Lower Derwent Valley. Yesterday I mentioned the Whimbrels recorded in Sweden, Iceland, France, Gambia, Senegal and Guinea. I’ve put some of the other interesting records below and will add some more tomorrow as there are so many interesting records.

Iceland: An adult female Greylag Goose was ringed at Nosterfield in North Yorkshire on 2nd March 2003, this bird was then seen in Iceland on 19th April 2003 and then seen within the LDV NNR on 19th February 2005.

Iceland: An adult female Black-tailed Godwit was ringed on 12th August 1999 at Terrington, The Wash, and was seen on 24th April 2000 in the LDV NNR. Just 6 days later it was found at Hofn in East Iceland.


Black-tailed Godwit © Andreas Trepte 2011

France: An adult male Sand Martin was ringed at Allerthorpe in the LDV NNR on 17th June 2005 and was caught again on 20th August 2006 at Oudale a distance of 495 km from the LDV, due to the timing of this sighting it was likely to be on its return journey to Africa for at least its third time!

Denmark and Germany: An Black-headed Gull ringed on 20th March 1997 at Svanemollebugten, Copenhagen, Denmark went ‘missing’ for over 6 years, before it was seen in Germany on 29th September 2003 and subsequently within the LDV in February 2004.

The Netherlands: An adult male Mallard was ringed on 20th November 1989 in the LDV NNR and was found dead almost 7 years later at Den Helder, The Netherlands on 15th September 1996.

The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden: An adult male Ruff was ringed on 29th April at Oosterlittens, Skrins, The Netherlands and then was seen in Norfolk (July 2005), then Norway (June 2006), then back in Norfolk (June 2006), then at The Humber (2006), before being seen in the LDV NNR (December 2006). After this initial sighting in the LDV NNR, the bird was then seen in Norfolk (August 2007), then back in the LDV NNR (April 2008), then 3 days later The Netherlands (April 2008) followed 11 days later by a sighting in Sweden (May 2008). The last sighting of this bird was January 2009, again back in the LDV NNR!

Portugal: An adult Reed Warbler was ringed in September 2005 at Lagon De Santo, Portugal and was re-caught in the LDV NNR on 29th April 2007 (a distance of 1862 km).


Reed Warbler © Adrian George 2011

Finland: A Peregrine Falcon ringed as a chick in Finland on 22nd July 1995 in Finland was found dead in the LDV NNR on 15th October 2000, some 2229 km from the nest site!

The data shows that several species that may be considered fairly mundane, such as Mallard and Greylag Goose may actually move around quite a bit, and maybe deserve a bit more credit and observation, especially for ringed birds!

It also goes to show that the Lower Derwent Valley is an incredibly important area for breeding, passage and wintering birds that can disperse all around Europe and into Africa - bringing home the fact that these birds are dependent on protection at home and abroad. There are more interesting records that I’ll put up tomorrow. Don’t forget about the Natural England Events going on over the weekend at Wheldrake Ings.

No comments:

Post a Comment