Monday 28 January 2013

German colour-ringed Curlew near Bangor!

 I hope Mike Watson won't mind me borrowing his image, and 'adding' colour-rings on Paint!
The bird is a German breeder and happens to winter on the Lavan Sands of N.Wales!

On 13th January, Matt and I walked to Llanfairfechan and back via the Spinnies/Aber Ogwen for my first trip out for the Foot It list. Whilst waiting for the birds to arrive at Spinnies at high tide, I scanned the Curlew flock that were roosting right in front of the hide, which was excellent for checking for rings! There were lots of metal ringed birds (on the tarsus) which were probably birds ringed in the area by SCAN, but I then noticed a red metal ring on a birds left tibia, as well as a metal ring on the right tibia. This was no doubt a foreign bird and really exciting. Sadly, it would appear to have dropped a couple of rings as there are no schemes with a single red ring.
A bit more searching and I spotted yellow and black! This bird showed a full combination or Right Leg: Green above Metal (tibia) and Left Leg: Black above Yellow (tibia).
This was a sufficient combination to send off and get the details of...

History:
Ringed on 28.02.2009 by Sean R.G. at Abergwyngregyn, near Bangor (FH 14979)
Colour-ringed on 16.05.2010 at Syen-Venn, county Nordhorn, Germany on territory. (returned to territory until 2012)
Resighted on 13.01.2013 by me at Aber Ogwen NR, Gwynedd

I was astounded to find out that the bird was originally ringed only a couple of miles away!

A really interesting bird!

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