Sunday morning

[Pete Crooks]

#5681

Lune Estuary, Golden Ball – 1 Barnacle Goose on the river at low tide with a small gathering of Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Unringed and fully winged, but presumably of feral origin, it flew off to land at the northern end of Aldcliffe Marsh.

Heysham North Harbour Wall – 18 Gannet and 21 Kittiwake heading into the Bay were the sea-watching highlights.

Eric Morecambe Pools
7 Mediterranean Gull – 6 x 1st summer (or 2nd CY) and 1 x 2nd summer (or 3rd CY) – all on the Allen Pool and the most I can recall seeing there.
1 adult Common Tern – Allen Pool – the first I can recall seeing there.
35 adult Avocet, plus 1 recently hatched chick. This included 2 colour-ringed birds – the regular French-ringed bird (Red/Yellow O – Red/Lime green) and a bird I thought must have been ringed at Conder Pool, but apparently not (Yellow flag 73)

Pete C

[Ian Hartley]

#5684

Avocet yellow flag 73 was ringed as a chick 10/6/2021 on the English side of the Solway, north Cumbria, it was photographed at Desembocadura Río Almanzora, Almería, Spain on 06/05/2022, then photographed at Musselburgh pools, East Lothian on 18-19/05/2022. It turned up at Leighton Moss pools, where it was photographed/sighted first on 05/06/2022, then on several dates up to 12/06/2022. From mating behaviour it is a female.

Thanks for the record Pete. All records of flagged avocets gratefully received, including repeat sightings from the same site. Either to me directly or on here with a date/time/place.

The ringing is starting to provide new information on movements of Lancashire and Cumbrian Avocets even with relatively small numbers marked. After fledging they seem to disperse quite widely within the UK, for example to Teeside and the Humber as well within Lancashire. Sightings suggest they have wintered in Essex, Devon, Spain and France. Although it was previously reported that Avocets do not breed in their first year, we know that is not the case, and one of the Avocets ringed as a chick last year at Conder Green is currently raising chicks at Titchwell in Norfolk, while another has come home and currently has chicks at Conder pool and a third has tried to breed at Leighton Moss. They are potentially long-lived birds, so should continue to provide data in future years as well.

Thanks

Ian Hartley

[Author]

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