Lamsdell Bird Ringing and Wildlife Blog: Darvic marking swans in the Colne Valley

Wednesday 13 February 2019

Darvic marking swans in the Colne Valley - 12th February 2019

A gentle return to ringing with Mike Reed today as we toured round the local canals and lakes, looking for swans that could be caught. We tried Black Park first and managed to catch the penn, already ringed, but the darvic 4DNO meant that she would be easily identified without being caught up. The 8F carried ring W33881 that had been fitted on 21/12/2012 at Windlesham. She was observed once in 2015 but not recorded since. It's likely that she was there, just not recorded, as we have seen ringed birds there many times, but due to the water colour never can read the full metal ring number. The cob was far too wary for capture once his mate had been caught.

The next attempt was at the canal by Fassnidge Park, Uxbridge. Here a pair came to bread and one got ring W48064 and was fitted with darvic 4DNP.

There were a few places where there were no swans at all and others were swans didn't respond or were just too cautious.

Our last captured bird was at Little Britten Lake where an 8M with ring number W39755 had darvic 4DNQ added. It had previously had 4BQY, but had lost it somewhere, having been originally ringed at Rickmansworth Aquadrome on 13/9/2015. While there we noticed that two Canada Geese were ringed, but despite the birds both coming out of the water, the numbers could not be read in full.

We did a bit better with a Black-headed Gull with a yellow colour ring with black print. This ring could only be seen in flight, but photographs confirmed the alpha-numeric code as TL0U.

Black print on yellow is a Polish scheme

A view from a slightly different angle confirms that it is TL0U

The report from the originating ringing scheme was through the following day ....in Polish. It took us a while to pick out our desired information and we have highlighted in red the date, location, ring number, distance from origin and number of days elapsed for ease.

Danezaobrączkowania Gatunek: Płeć,wiek: Status:

Data,czas,dokł.: Miejsce: Współrzędne:

Obrączkarz:

śmieszka (Chroicocephalusridibundus) [] nieznana, pisklę niedotyczy(ptakjestpisklęciem)

2017-05-27, 0:0, datadokładna [PL MZ]WARSZAWA-URSYNÓW:JEZ.ZGORZAŁA,MAZOWIECKIE,POLSKA 52°07'23.4'';20°59'46.6'' (52,12316100;20,99627900)

AnnaBudyta

Kondycja: [8]żywyiprawdopodobniezdrowy-widzianylubwypuszczonyprzezobrączkarza

PLG|A0|FS...24445|0|1|BB|05820|05820|N|0|H|N|U|U|1|1|-|00|21|4|27052017|0|----|PLMZ|+520723+0205947|0|8|20|0|4

Dokładnośćwspół.: współrzędnedokładne

Daneponownegostwierdzenia

Gatunek: Płeć,wiek:

Uwagi:

Weryf.obrączki:

Miejsce: Współrzędne:

Znalazca:

śmieszka (Chroicocephalusridibundus) [] nieznana, ptaklotny

2019-02-12, 14:45, datadokładna [GB BC]Iver,BUCKINGHAM,WIELKABRYTANIA 51°31'08.2'';-0°29'24.3'' (51,51894100;-0,49009600)

DeniseLamsdell,ChrisLamsdell Okoliczności: [81]odczytanonumerkolorowejobrączki

Odległość:1471 km, Kierunek:275°, Odstępczasu:626 dni

Status: zimujący Kondycja: [7]żywyiprawdopodobniezdrowy-widzianylubwypuszczony

PLG|A0|FS...24445|0|0|BC|05820|05820|N|0|Z|U|U|U|2|2|W|--|--|-|12022019|0|1445|GBBC|+513108-0002924|0|7|81|0|4

About us

Chris and Denise Lamsdell

We have both been birders for about 40 years based in South Bucks near the West London reservoir complexes.

Since September 2021 we have been based in North Norfolk. We have done our bit of twitching in the past, but with other priorities this has become a much reduced activity with a preference for seeing new birds where ever our travels take us.

We both have been ringing since 2005. Our local group was the Runnymede RG while based in Buckinghamshire. Since moving to Norfolk we have started a new group called The Iceni Bird Monitoring Group, aimed at increasing public engagement through colour ringing projects on Black-headed Gull, Turnstone and Lapwing. We ring at several sites including Sculthorpe Moor, Sandringham Estate, Deepdale Farm and also monitor bird populations for the Norfolk Rivers Trust. We do ringing at home and support with foreign projects when opportunities allow. Chris also has an interest in Butterflies and Dragonflies and contains his limited photographic skill to them.