Monday 12 January 2015

River Thames, Windsor - 6 and 12 January 2015

We've had another very windy spell and haven't been able to get out to ring much yet this year so  took a walk along the Thames at Windsor to look for colour rings on Mute Swans.


Over the two dates we found several black on orange colour ringed birds. These birds have been ringed at Ruislip Lido and the surrounding area by Mike Reed.

This female was colour ringed at Ruislip Lido on 24/10/2013. 


We also picked up 041 (black on orange) on our second visit and wait to see whether  this is a different series used on Mike's study.

There were also several birds with black on white darvics. We already have some details for these, but others have yet to come through. So far, all were local birds. There was a time when many more of the swans at Windsor had white darvics but now they are becoming less common.

L3C

When birds stand out on the bank it's sometimes possible to read the metal BTO ring

 Chris tries for a clear view while birds preen on the bank

I photographed some, successfully, too.

We were really quite excited to see white on blue TO32 as we've never seen a dark blue one here before. 

T032

It seemed to match with a series issued by the Latvian scheme on dark blue. But ever keen to ensure reliable data is recorded, Chris made further enquiries just to make sure the O was not a 0. As it turned out, it was 0 and not O, and it was ringed under a project on juvenile dispersal at Winchester, so rather less well travelled than we first hoped. It was ringed on 3rd October in 2012.

Finally, we also witnessed the rescue of a Mute swan from between two barges. As ringers, we  are used to working under close scrutiny. I can't help thinking that I might have tried to increase the gap between barges rather than yank the bird out by its neck.