From Africa with love

Whenever an email from the BTO ringing unit drops into your inbox, there's always a frisson of excitement--but most times it relates to a relatively common bird that you have ringed such as a Blue Tit, which has been found a few hundred metres from where you ringed it. Obviously still useful in its way ........ but every now and then something a bit special arrives.
Here is the notification form sent by the BTO a couple of days ago:-

 

I appreciate its not too clear but the key details are that a Sedge Warbler (recently fledged) was ringed by us at Belvide Reserve in Staffordshire on 8th August 2018. It was subsequently recaptured on 9th February in Mauritania over 4000 kms away!! In case, like me, your African geography is a bit sketchy--most of Mauritania is the western part of the  Sahara, between Morocco to the north and Senegal to the south.

 

This is the most distant recovery we as a group have had for Sedge Warbler, although it fits with what we know about the migration of this species. The date is a little intriguing in that it seems a bit early for this to be a bird on return migration from south of the Sahara--so maybe it has found suitable habitat in Mauritania and spent the winter there. Another piece in the migration jigsaw. It will be fascinating to see if we handle this bird back at Belvide later this year--watch this space!!