Coot ringing - 15th January 2022

Today came an opportunity to be involved with colour marking Coot at Pensthorpe Natural Park, Norfolk. The white rings are each inscribed with three alpha numeric characters to form a unique code.

These interesting birds are present in the UK all year round. However, the UK is also used as a wintering ground for birds, that thanks to ringing studies, are known to have travelled to or from Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Latvia, Finland, Poland, Morocco and Russia. This list is by no means exhaustive and ringed birds can result in interesting and sometimes surprising recoveries.

For each bird data recorded comprised of age, sex, wing length, tarsus length and weight.

Seven birds received darvic leg rings to allow birds to be identified in the field. This can easily be read in the field and reported by anyone through https://cr-birding.org

Photograph by ER Buck

Leg colouration has been described as a method for ageing these birds, however recent captures of known age birds appear to question the reliability of this method.

Three Mallard were also captured and processed.

Totals: 12

Mallard - 3
Coot - 9 (7 marked using darvics)

Thanks are extended to GE for organising the session, Kane Brides for coordinating the Coot project and Pensthorpe Natural Park for granting access to undertake the study.