Recent Recoveries
The details can sometimes take a while to come through to us, but here are some Recoveries that have been notified to the Group over the past two years.
A Gadwall duckling ringed in July 2010 was shot on the Ouse Washes in Cambridgeshire just 39 days later.
An interesting Mallard recovery was a bird ringed as a newly fledged juvenile in the summer of 2009, found as a carcase on sale at butchers in Salisbury in December 2010.
A Tufted Duck ringed as a duckling in 2010 was shot in Loire-Atlantique, France the following January.
At last, a wildfowl recovery that hasn't been shot! This was a Canada Goose found dead at nearby Amwell in Spring 2011, having been ringed as an adult at Rye Meads in 1995, so at least 17 years old.
We don't ring that many Green Woodpeckers, so it was nice to have one recovered. It only went just up the road to Stanstead Abbotts, where it regrettably died in some fishing line, some two years after ringing as a juvenile.
And now an interesting series of rapid movers. Firstly a Reed Warbler, ringed as a juvenile in the summer of 2007, was controlled just 26 days after ringing and over 500 km to the south in Donges, Loire-Atlantique, France.
Two Sedge Warblers, one ringed in 2006 and one in 2008, were both controlled in Finisterre in France a month later.
A Reed Warbler, ringed as a nestling in 2008, was controlled two months later in Charente-Maritime, France.
Here is a Chiffchaff recovery supporting the view that our breeding birds move south for the winter, and the wintering birds here come from further north and east. A bird ringed as a fledgling in June 2010 was controlled in October 2010 in Sevilla, SPAIN, 1685km SSW.
A juvenile Sedge Warbler ringed in August 2009 was controlled in Nord, France, more than 250km SE, just 13 days later...
...Another ringed in July 2010 reached Loire-Atlantique, France, 517km south, in 16 days...
...and a third, ringed on the same day, was in Gironde, France, 741km to the south, in 22 days...
...finally, a juvenile ringed in July 2008 was in Guipúzcoa, Spain, 945km to the south also in 22 days.
And not to be left out, a Whitethroat ringed as a young bird in August 2010 was controlled just 14 days later in Maine-et-Loire, France, 513km south.
In the slow lane, by contrast, a Sedge Warbler ringed as a juvenile in August 2007 was controlled in August 2009 in Charente-Maritime, France, some 700km south of Rye Meads.
And another Sedge Warbler, ringed as a juvenile in August 2010, was controlled almost exactly a year later at Loire-Atlantique, France, 514km to the south.
And now some relatively long-lived small passerines. Firstly a Reed Warbler ringed as a juvenile in summer of 2007, controlled in May 2010 close to Rye Meads. Breeding there, or just on its way home after a winter in Africa?
Similarly, a Chiffchaff ringed as a juvenile in summer 2006 was controlled as male in midsummer 2010 in Bedfordshire.
And a much longer Sand Martin record was one ringed in September 2005, already an adult bird, and controlled in April 2008 in Malaga, Spain. This bird had therefore been to Africa and back at least four times and still going strong.