Monday 21 May 2018

From Russia with mixed emotions!!


The Woodcock that winter in Wales are mostly winter visitors from the continent and we have had many recoveries from our targeted ringing of this species over the past few years to show where exactly they come from. This May though has seen an exceptional rash of Russian recoveries, eight in total, including what is probably the furthest reported movement ever for a BTO-ringed Woodcock at 6,267kms. This massive movement was made by a bird ringed on the University Farm at Trawscoed near Aberystwyth on 4th January 2017 and recovered on 13th May 2018 50km north of KrasnoyarskRussian Federation. As can be seen from the map below that is north of Mongolia and about halfway through China!!

These recoveries are received with mixed emotions, on one hand they yield important data on Woodcock movements and hunting pressures but on the other they are all shot birds so will not be making any return journeys! Should you be a shooter reading this, next time you raise your barrel at a flushed Woodcock just take a couple of seconds to wonder (in both senses of the word) how far it has flown to be in your sights, hopefully a couple of seconds should be just long enough!!


The final Russian resting spots of eight Welsh-ringed Woodcock


All foreign recoveries of BTO ringed Woodcock up to the end of 2016

Robinson, R.A., Leech, D.I. & Clark, J.A.(2017) The Online Demography Report: Bird ringing and nest recording in Britain & Ireland in 2016. BTO, Thetford (http://www.bto.org/ringing-report, created on 5-September-2017)

2 comments:

  1. what a distance! great return for the effort by you all. shame it met a gun after making the journey back.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm afraid virtually all the ones we get returned have been (how else would anyone get to read the number - not much ringing done out there!). At least they are being reported thereby adding to our knowledge of movement etc.

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