AA was worth the money after all!

On 8th August 2013 our Sandwich Tern colour-ringing project started at Ynyslas with the ceremonial marking of Red KAA, an adult caught on autumn passage from breeding grounds as yet unknown.

Well, who would have thought, yesterday I had email confirmation from South African tern ringer extraordinaire Mark Boorman that he had just recorded it alive and well hanging out at 4 Mile Salt Works, Swakopmund, Namibia with a whole host of other Sandwich Terns, many of which have been colour-ringed by ornithologists from all over Europe! So far 4 of the birds ringed at Ynyslas have been seen at this one location - about 1 in 10 of all the birds we have marked so far. 

Thanks for all your efforts Mark, very good to know what is going on in our birds "other lives". The following is a link to a short paper by Mark on the tern ringing at 4 Mile salt works and the dangers the terns face from predatory Jackals and Hyaenas http://safring.adu.org.za/papers/afring_38_24.pdf. Puts the dog-walking debacle at Ynyslas into sharp context!!