Just this morning we had notifications from 3 of our birds ringed at Belvide but re-caught (controlled as we call it) abroad. In all these cases from France--great news to brighten a dull, dank, lock-down day at home!!
In one respect the more interesting recovery was that of DYD615. This is the number on the ring carried by a juvenile Willow Warbler ringed at Belvide on 18th July 2020.
It seems like it was already preparing to migrate because on 20th August 2020 it was controlled by a ringer in the Gironde region of France, 830km away from Belvide.
Although this doesn't really push back any frontiers of science, it is yet one more bit of evidence about when species migrate, their timing and the routes taken. For the Belvide team it's also exciting in that it's the first Willow Warbler that we have had controlled anywhere.
The other two controls were both Sedge Warblers, and add to the increasing bank of evidence we have about the initial route taken by our Belvide Sedgies.
The first is a juvenile Sedge Warbler AJN0975, which we ringed on 31st August 2020. There's no way of knowing if this was a bird which had been reared at Belvide or was dropping in to feed on it's way south. However, on 9th September it was controlled by a French ringer in the Loire-Atlantique region of France 597km south.
The second Sedgie was ringed by us on 29th July 2019 at Belvide and controlled at the same site as the previous bird on 30th July 2020!
These two birds follow a now well established pattern of 'our' Sedge Warblers setting off in a generally southerly direction and stopping off at sites in northern/central France probably for theur first refuelling stop en route to sub Saharan Africa. This second bird also demonstrates how early some birds can be well on with their migration--it was still only July when it was caught in France.
Here's a map showing these controls so you can better see where these tiny birds were recaptured
No comments:
Post a Comment