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Friday 12 May 2017

News on April ringing controls

Updated 17 May: Details are given below of three movements shown by ringing carried out on Lundy by Chris Dee in the third week of April. The first two show rapid movement to and from the island of newly arrived spring migrants, while the third emphasizes the importance of the coastal wetlands of north-west France as autumn feeding-up areas for Sedge Warblers that migrate through Lundy in spring, presumably heading for breeding grounds elsewhere in Britain or Ireland.

Ring no. S327850 Reed Warbler ringed as an adult at Porth Hellick, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, 18 April 2017; controlled on Lundy, 20 April 2017 and 22 April 2017 (2 and 4 days after ringing; distance 180 km; bearing 40 degrees).

Ring no. Z981823 Sedge Warbler ringed as an adult on Lundy, 20 April 2017; controlled at Hasfield Ham, Gloucestershire, 22 April 2017 (2 days after ringing; distance 188 km; bearing 63 degrees).

Ring no. 7502526 Sedge Warbler ringed as a first-year bird at Tour aux Moutons, Donges (Loire Atlantique), France, 18 August 2015; controlled on Lundy 20 April 2017 (611 days after ringing; distance 468 km from original ringing site; bearing 337 degrees from original ringing site). Very similar movements, involving exactly the same French ringing site, saw Sedge Warblers ringed at Tour aux Moutons in August 2006 and August 2008 controlled on Lundy in April 2009 and May 2007 respectively, while information posted here by the Teifi Ringing Group mentions 12 exchanges of Sedge Warblers between the Teifi Marshes (on the west coast of Wales) and Donges, or vice versa, as of June 2016. Thousands of Sedge Warblers are ringed annually in Donges during the late summer, as part of a long-running ringing and migration programme; over 9,300 were ringed in 2011 alone! These have generated numerous controls in other countries, the great majority in Britain. See the ACROLA website for further information (mainly in French, though some reports have English abstracts).

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