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Sunday 20 January 2013

Colour-ringed Godwits

Back in September I posted on my visit to south-west Ireland and added some photos on a couple of first-year colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwits at Roscarberry, Co Cork.  They were part of a flock of c.500 birds, mainly first-years, and the two colour-ringed birds were observed in close proximity for several hours on 19th September.  The rings are as follows:

Bird 1 on left:  Left leg - pale green over dark green    Right leg - red over yellow flag
Bird 2 on right:  Left leg - dark green over black    Right leg - yellow over yellow flag

Black-tailed Godwits
I scoured the internet and found several addresses for people who carried out Black-tailed Godwit ringing and sent off the details.  Not having heard anything I rather gave up hope, but out of the blue I received an email this morning from a Peter Potts with details on the birds.  Both birds, as suspected, were Icelandic, having been ringed there earlier in the year.  Their ringing details are as follows:

Bird 1 on left:  ringed in the southern lowlands of Iceland - details to follow.
Bird 2 on right:  ringed on 1st July 2012 at Klettur, road 60 north of Kroksfjardarnes in NW Iceland at 65 28 976'N 21 56.631'W.
Ringing site, photo P Potts
Ysbrand Galama and Dan Hoare, photo P Potts

Bird 2 in the hand, photo P Potts
1700km from ringing site to where I saw it in Ireland