Colour-ringed birds reveal their travels

Caspian Gull, left (Ed Betteridge)

With more than 330 species – almost 75% of the Welsh total – recorded on Ynys Enlli, it becomes ever harder to add a new species to the list seen on the island, off the tip of Pen Llŷn. Spring and autumn migrations provide the best chance, but the latest addition seen by wardens at Bardsey Bird Observatory was a seabird dispersing from Europe. A Caspian Gull, with its pear-shaped head and deep, slightly bulbous, bill, bore a colour-ring attached in the nest at De Kreupel in The Netherlands. Enquiries revealed that it had been ringed in early May and this was the first resighting. As reported when the first Caspian Gull for Caernarfonshire was seen in June, the species has been recorded fewer than 25 times in Wales, although may occur more frequently than is recognised. As its breeding range has spread west to this Dutch site in recent years, these won’t be the last.

An early autumn Curlew Sandpiper on Malltraeth Cob Pool on Sunday was heading south to sub-Saharan Africa after spending the breeding season in the high latitudes of Siberia. News came this week that a Curlew Sandpiper seen in Pembrokeshire earlier this summer had been colour-ringed on the very southern tip of India, where it was probably wintering, in November 2022. I’d speculate that it flew north to breed in spring 2023, but then joined other waders leaving for a journey to West Africa via eastern Europe, and then headed north via west Wales this spring. No Curlew Sandpiper ringed in India has been seen in Britain or Ireland previously; Ukraine is the farthest east that ringed birds seen in Britain have been recorded, according to BTO ringing data.

The weekend saw a Garganey at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands Border Pool, and a long-staying Ring-necked Duck again on Llyn Brân in Mynydd Hiraethog. A Ruff and Green Sandpiper were among waders at RSPB Conwy last week and a Hooded Crow at Aber Ogwen.