Lamsdell Bird Ringing and Wildlife Blog: River Thames, Windsor & Truss's Island

Thursday 17 December 2020

River Thames, Windsor & Truss's Island - 16th December 2020

Today we took our exercise by the Thames. From the two locations we managed 33 records with no more than the aid of a box of grain, loaf of bread, bins and a camera.

We look for plastic coded rings, but also manage quite a few metal rings too although this requires the swan to up end or come out of the water.

4DYH competes with the flock for the little food being provided currently.
Probably got there care of the local rescue centres rather than a natural movement.

No tourists to feed the waterfowl in a place where free food is usually guaranteed.

ZY6622 (Y3T) - an interesting one that was reported dead in 2018 according to DeMon

It looks to us as though the same darvic ring has been shown as associated with both ZY6622 & W28320. According to the records W28320 hit power cables and died in 2018. Very curious!

W38003 - the first time we've seen this one and a while since it was reported at all.

Tourists were absent, but we still found two foreign visitors amongst the Black Headed Gulls.

T6ML - a Polish bird

18/06/2017	FS 13525 YEL T6ML	Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus	STAWY KISZKOWO,GNIEZNO POLAND (WIELKOPOLSKIE)	Halina Pietrykowska
08/04/2019	YEL T6ML	Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus	ZŁOTORYJSKO:ŻWIROWNIA,MUROWANA GOŚLINA POLAND (WIELKOPOLSKIE)	Adam Loręcki
15/04/2019	YEL T6ML	Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus	ZŁOTORYJSKO:ŻWIROWNIA,MUROWANA GOŚLINA POLAND (WIELKOPOLSKIE)	Mateusz Loręcki Adam Loręcki
17/04/2019	YEL T6ML	Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus	ZŁOTORYJSKO:ŻWIROWNIA,MUROWANA GOŚLINA POLAND (WIELKOPOLSKIE)	Adam Loręcki
31/03/2020	YEL T6ML	Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus	Poznań: Jezioro Maltańskie POLAND (WIELKOPOLSKIE)	Maciej Gierszewski
16/12/2020	YEL T6ML	Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus	Windsor UNITED KINGDOM (BERKSHIRE)	Christopher Lamsdell

IA16

A1605

537

Three lucky shots to give the entire number. IA160537 with GELWARTE and what appeared to be Germany printed. It still needed a quick email to ask if anyone knew which of three schemes it could be and we had identified the correct scheme by the end of the day.

There were a few more birds at Truss's Island, however nothing was as interesting as the individuals recorded at Windsor.

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.