100 and still going strong

No not me, barely half that!

Just 45 days ago, on 4th January, Paul and I colour-ringed the first Golden Plover of our new project looking at their wintering ecology in the Mid-Wales and South Shropshire Hills (part funded by a grant from the Ecology Matters Trust).

Last night B19 became the 100th and the tally of 8 new birds took the total to an amazing 103 colour-ringed and 250 ringed since the start of the winter!

That's about this many!!

To put that in context, here are the ringing totals for Golden Plover for the last 70 odd years from the BTO's online reports (a great new source of data and incentive!). The best ever year was 1986 with a GB and Ireland total of 327 including 270 adults.

 http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/ringing/publications/online-ringing-reports

Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria	Pullus	Full-grown	Total
Grand Total (1909-2010)			6,866
1931	6	1	7
1932	10	0	10
1933	35	5	40
1934	16	3	19
1935	27	0	27
1936	34	1	35
1937	12	0	12
1938	17	3	20
1939	19	0	19
1940	5	0	5
1941	3	0	3
1942	3	0	3
1943	4	0	4
1944	13	0	13
1945	1	0	1
1946	3	0	3
1947	1	0	1
1948	6	0	6
1949	10	1	11
1950	7	0	7
1951	5	0	5
1952	16	7	23
1954	0	0	16
1955	19	0	19
1956	21	0	21
1957	32	1	33
1958	11	3	14
1959	4	12	16
1960	26	27	53
1961	20	94	114
1962	12	22	34
1963	26	22	48
1964	21	38	59
1965	12	54	66
1966	22	28	50
1967	10	26	36
1968	32	21	53
1969	13	52	65
1970	24	69	93
1971	24	22	46
1972	34	61	95
1973	49	96	145
1974	69	43	112
1975	62	97	159
1976	155	100	255
1977	232	13	245
1978	141	56	197
1979	67	63	130
1980	81	26	107
1981	65	58	123
1982	56	27	83
1983	72	19	91
1984	64	74	138
1985	104	202	306
1986	57	270	327
1987	98	221	319
1988	62	36	98
1989	68	34	102
1990	67	129	196
1991	51	169	220
1992	34	54	88
1993	84	102	186
1994	85	41	126
1995	111	90	201
1996	101	61	162
1997	86	64	150
1998	47	38	85
1999	22	76	98
2000	58	39	97
2001	6	29	35
2002	31	92	123
2003	24	28	52
2004	77	36	113
2005	17	63	80
2006	45	100	145
2007	24	8	32
2008	14	67	81
2009	27	127	154

We've had one or two local sightings so far but it will be great when the more distant records come flooding in, so keep your eyes peeled!